Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Power Project EP. 211 Live - Noah Kingery

Episode Date: May 16, 2019

Noah Kingery transformed his life through nutrition from weighing 356 lbs to 166 lbs. But it was no easy road to get there. He dealt with depression and addiction along the way, and was able to pull himself out of it when he lost everything. He has been sober since 2013 and is now on a mission to guide others to unlock their own freedoms through hands-on guidance and emotional support. His passion and purpose is to see others experience the freedom that optimal health can bring, just like it did for him. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Find the Podcast on all platforms: ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YQE02jPOboQrltVoAD8bp ➢Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Check. Check. Oh yeah, that's clear. He's a pro. He checked like a pro. He checked it twice and then he was like checked it off the list. He's like, I checked it and it's good. Conquer this too. Yeah. Who is this guy? Got Noah

Kingery in here today. Former fat guy. You know, this is a hard thing to there's a lot you know, to this story. I've, uh, there's a, there's a lot, you know, to the story. I've been listening to a lot of your messages and a lot of your Instagram stuff, a lot of your YouTube stuff, and been watching a lot of that is actually sent to me. Um, somebody just sent, sent me a clip of yours, uh, in the DM, somebody slid into my DMS and they sent me a clip of yours. And I was like, wow, this is crazy.

It's very emotional. The story is very emotional. And I started to check out other videos and stuff. And I was like, wow, this is really interesting. So it's almost like hard to figure out where to start. But let's, I guess let's start out by saying you used to be 356 pounds, right? Yes, 356. And what does that, you know, now, what does that mean to you? Gosh, you know, when I think back about being 356 pounds,

and I'll never forget it, not just 356 pounds, but an addict, you know, for many, many years through that, everything from the depression, the addiction, the suicide attempts. I mean, you name it. I cannot just correlate one thing of like weight loss to the story of what it is. And when I think about 356, I just think about how hopeless it feels. And so when I'm working with other individuals and they are in that place, in those shoes that I once walked, I can identify with that. And so I think that a lot of just our stories and just being transparent, I was talking to your brother earlier, but being transparent about what we've gone through has the possibilities to unlock other people's freedom to what they're going through.

Do you think that we're sometimes maybe making a mistake in, let's say we see someone at the airport and they're 350 pounds, 400 pounds. Do you think we're making a mistake to automatically think that they're going through what you were going through? You know, or, or is there, or is there no way to, to be that size and not have a lot of shit attached to it? I think it's much deeper than the scale number. I think it's much deeper than how they look or, you know, but I do believe that being overweight at an unhealthy place, there has got to be something deeper of why they're in that place. There has to be. And it doesn't mean that they're dealing with depression. It doesn't mean that they're dealing with wanting to take their life every other day. You know, they may quote unquote love where they are, but I truly believe deep down there is something else attached to that of maybe food being an escape for them for the pressures of life.

pressures of life. And I think that a lot of individuals, what I try to do whenever I see a 356 pound individual in the gym, I make sure that if I'm seeing them in there consistently, I go and I make sure that they know that they're being seen. You're in here, you're doing it. I know what it's like to be 356 pounds in the gym, thinking everybody was looking right through me. No support, people not understanding where I was, and it's a hard emotional place to be. And so I think that that's really important. What's sad is that today I'm in the best shape of my life and I've been for three years and I have more support and more people saying, you look amazing. And even on my journey, you look great. You're doing it compared to what it was when I needed it the most.

This may sound like crass or mean, but I think, unfortunately what happens happens is, let's say you see like a burn victim, right? You're on the street, you see a burn victim. You see someone who's homeless. You see someone who's obese. You identify that there's a problem. You identify that there's like, quote unquote, something wrong. And then therefore, you don't know what to do. And you kind of don't look and you kind of you recognize that as somebody who doesn't

really look like or represent what a human being normally looks like um like i said it might sound mean or ruthless but i think that's what happens in people's mind we identify and see each other like little kids like i remember with my children when i go to the grocery store and uh my kids would be walking through the grocery store, they'd see another little kid and they'd stop dead in their tracks because they identified like that dude looks just like me. And like, I want to go play with him, you know? And I think, you know, when you're older, you kind of identify like that person doesn't really look like me. I don't know if they vibe with me. So I'm just going to like pretend they don't exist, keep my head

down. And I'm not sure if I should look at somebody who's missing an arm. I'm not sure if I should look at somebody who's 500 pounds, you know, but I guess, you know, and what you're saying, we could learn from this and just say, Hey, what's up, man? How you doing? Or hi, or good morning. Right. Just like you would to anybody else. It's a, it's an easy head nod. I mean, that's all I needed. You know, I'd be in there on the elliptical by like pretty much by myself. And most of the time when you're overweight or any of it, I mean, even today, you know, there is some social anxiety when it comes to being in the gym. I train at Zoo Culture, Bradley Martin's gym. And there, especially when I started there, you know, social media was small,

but that gym is, they're constantly shooting. And for me, I would sit in the parking lot, even in the shape that I'm in right now, or, you know, I was before the skin removal surgery, but in that shape. And I would say, I'm not fit enough. I would fight myself to go in there because of the social anxiety, you know? And I do, I think that giving people a head nod of saying like, I see you in here, you don't have to, you know, and I do, I think that giving people a head nod of saying like, I see you in here. You don't have to, you know, and I understand what you're saying is that when you, you know, I was born in India, I was raised in India. My parents work with physically disabled for 30 years. I have seen the worst of the worst of the worst when it comes to poverty,

when it comes to disability, when it comes to people that don't quote unquote look like us, but treating them no differently. Not looking at somebody in the airport in a wheelchair and looking at them with pity or not paying attention to them. I think that it's huge to just say, let them go first or don't feel sorry for them, but just have camaraderie. I mean, I think as human beings, we should have more compassion for people. I think everybody wants to be recognized. True. Period. You know, like it doesn't matter if you're the rock or if you're not, right? Like you want recognition. He wouldn't do the post that he does if he didn't want any

recognition. If he just wanted to like hide and be famous and be rich, he could crawl under a rock somewhere, right? What you got, buddy? You mentioned food being an escape for a lot of people that are overweight. And then you also mentioned all the other addiction that you had. Because you used to be in really good shape, how did that happen? It wasn't just food, but what else was accompanying that? I'll just give you a few spark notes of where this started. But if you go back to 2006, 2007, senior year of high school, I was playing professional

soccer in Brazil. I was known for the athlete, for being just in great shape. I had the option of choosing to sign there in Brazil or come back to the United States. I had a high school sweetheart in the United States. I chose to come back. I went for scholarships, all of that, but I started to lose priorities and lose my way. A year later, I went from 143 pounds to 356. I gained 210 pounds in a year. Of course, the food was an escape. That's where the alcohol started. That's where the drug started. And this is what I say to anybody who is trying

to escape the pressures of life, is that they are going to continue to be there. They're going to continue to come. And if you can work positive reinforcements of habit to deal with those pressures instead of run from them, it will enhance who you are. But the moment that you start escaping those things, whether it is the food, whether it is the alcohol, whether it is that toxic relationship that you're not supposed to be in, the minute that you're able to start breaking those and doing things that are positive for your life, it will change the way that you react and the way that you deal with the stress. And I have a lot of individuals that I work with that are constantly struggling with, I had a great week, Monday through Friday, Friday night, I had a really tough, you know, something

happened and Saturday and Sunday I binged all day and they're back to square one. And I have to remind them and ask them, what did that do for your problems the next day? What is that alcohol? What is that escape? What does that food do for your problems the next day? What is that alcohol? What is that escape? What does that food do for your problems the next day other than making you feel worse than you were feeling? And the problems are still there and it's even harder to deal with those problems. Yeah. You feel that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because desires and addictions are a lot of times they're a trap.

You know, they, uh, we desire to be like in better shape and that's usually, that's normally a fairly healthy goal, you know? Um, but we desire and we're addicted to things like alcohol and things like coffee. And if you really think about it, like you want to see if coffee tastes good or alcohol tastes good, give it to a kid. You know, they'll tell you how bad it is. It doesn't really taste that good. So we're not really drinking it because it's a chocolate shake. The food addiction thing is a totally separate kind of ball game because we can all agree that like there's a lot of foods that taste really good and we all have kind of different taste buds for different things. And it's like, man, how do we avoid, how do we avoid some of that? But you know,

your story is really interesting because you've been everywhere. So I really like that part of it because I think a lot of times people are thinking like, when I do this, this will get better. When I graduate from college and I go here, this will be better. My mindset will be stronger. I'm going to start something next month. For you, you lived in India and then the move to America. And did living in America change anything for you, you lived in India and then, you know, the move to America. And did living in America change anything for you?

Like, did you gain the weight here? Like, is America like not America in general, but the options, the overall options that you have as opposed to maybe India, maybe it was different food wise. Yeah. For me, I moved back. So I went back and forth. So when I got into high school, I went back to Texas. So we moved to Dallas, Texas. The wait didn't happen there. You know, the wait happened once I came back. I had no dreams. I didn't know what I was doing with my life. And that's when I started to escape. Right. With the drugs, alcohol, the food. alcohol, the food. But your question about the amount of options, if I'm kind of understanding what you're saying, the amount of options that are here in the United States and the obesity epidemic that there is, it is insane. And I mean, I've spent the last four months traveling in

third world countries, except for Europe, but even Europe, there's nothing close to the amount of options that you have at your fingertips. Not at all. And I think that, yes, that makes it harder. However, I think that that makes options much more available to getting healthy alternatives that you cannot get in India. Protein powder, I'll give you an example. And I'm not, you know, I believe that whether you're supplementing with protein powder or protein bars, any of that, I don't think that that's unhealthy. I'm not against that as long as it helps you with your adherence and what you're trying to do. But protein powder is $160 for a two and a half pound container of gold standard optimum whey nutrition. I'm not plugging optimum whey

because I think it's the poor filtration that you can get, but $160. I gotta sell my shit over there. Well, and, but here's the thing is that, so for something like that, I have clients, I've got seven clients in India. I can't work with them on their resources the way that I can with US clients.

Same in Europe. Europe doesn't have these type of options, right? So it makes it a little more difficult. But if you have a food addiction and you have the plethora of options that you have here, I walked into Walmart day one that I landed. I haven't been here for four months and I was like, oh my God, I haven't seen this many options, you know, because it's been only four months, but it's just like, it's crazy. The plethora, you're bringing up something great because, uh, I never even thought about that. I never even thought about how many great options we have. I just thought about like, oh shit, it sucks that there's a McDonald's on every corner. I think it comes down to education.

I think it comes down to understanding what your options are. When I work with clients, I have to remember of where I was, of how little I knew, how little knowledge I knew about the nutrition, but also what are your resources here? I don't just spit out macros for people. Like here's your macros, go for it. You will never ever help someone

who is struggling with obesity and struggling with addiction, break those habits with macros. And they could potentially lose weight, but they could potentially, the odds of them gaining it back are probably huge. Absolutely. They didn't really learn. Yeah. They didn't really learn much. Yeah. You know, so I think that, however, when I'm working with those individuals, it's giving them the ideas and understanding that these are your plethora of amazing healthy options that don't taste like quote unquote health foods. You know,

I think that's what people get twisted is they think that they've got to eat salads to lose weight. And I'm not against salad. I'm not against the micro, the macronutrients and the, I'm sorry, the micronutrients and the phytonutrients in salad. But there's many more ways to find healthy alternatives that really fit and suit what you love and what you don't. And I think that's the key, you know? So, I mean, in, especially in the States, I mean, there's so many options, rice, cauliflower, spaghetti, spiraled squash, stuff like that. Listen, I was doing that in India, but I was having to pulsate and process it all myself.

You know what I'm saying? And I'm sitting here thinking, God, I wish I had a three, a $3 bag right now. You know what I mean? Um, and so there is a lot to be said about resources and, and options that further the weight epidemic. Um, but I think at the end of the day, it comes down to what are your habits at the end of the day. That's what I like so much about the story because it's, uh, we hear a lot of people blame environment, you know, uh, and SEMA and I will hear people say, I don't have a super training near me. So, you know, I got a shitty deadlift or whatever. And you're like, well, that's, you know, that's not an excuse at all. There's a barbell somewhere near you and you can, it's what you make of it. And it's also like, kind of like what you have

inside. You know, I, I tell people all the time that the gym is like something that's inside you. You bring the intensity to the gym. You don't worry about what intensity is already inside the gym. Yeah, it's nice if there's music blaring and there's people that are like minded. That certainly helps a ton. But if there's not, you're going to have to find a way to bring it yourself. And in your case, it sounds like you gained a lot of your weight in India, but it didn't matter where you were, where you weren't, you were still able to lose weight and

ultimately end up managing it and being at the body weight that you are now, which is about how much? I'm at 169 right now. Typically when I'm training, I've not trained for 86 days. I was in the bed. Big boy, huh? I was in the bed, gosh, for the last, I was in the bed, big boy, huh? I was in the bed, gosh, for the last, I was in the bed, sorry, for 51 days total. And so- Tanning bed? I wish. No, but so as far as, so I typically will hold about 180 when I'm really training hard and eating. I've not been eating a lot. Again, the skin removal surgery is very invasive, hard and eating, you know, I've not been eating a lot. Um, I, again, the skin removal surgery is very invasive. Um, you know, but again, I, I think the gym though has been an amazing outlet for me

to release, you know, and I, I say that to people is find your tools of release. Can you give me a few things on, I'm sure there's like a lot of things, but what are, I mean, you mentioned kind of like depressed, you lost your goal, lost your vision type of deal. What are like maybe like three to five major things that led you to get that big? Cause it's excessive, right? It's like, it's totally understandable to go from 140 and be like, oh my God, I pudged out, I gained 40 pounds and I, I weigh 180. And then people are like, dude, your face is looking chubby, but to go this far, uh, there's must be a lot involved in it. So kind of walk us through some of that. Yeah. I mean, so, so 2007 to eight, I put on 210 pounds. So I was three 56. Um, I held that weight

for three years. And of course, like I said, the addictions played a huge role. The food played a huge role. And I mean, it's crazy. But I mean, I literally and even hearing people that were from high school and that this is the age of Facebook, people from high school and people that you knew, ex-girlfriends, whatever, saying, what happened to this dude? What happened? You know, because I mean, that's all they knew is an athlete, you know, and so that was really hard emotionally, you know, but what I say is this 2010. So I held that weight till 2010. I got into the fashion industry. I started doing in the age of the depression. Let's say I started doing $900 t-shirts. I was and because I did not want to compete with 10 and 20 t-shirts because I believe that the economy Those that could afford 20 t-shirts were like I better get gas or I can buy a t-shirt But the people that were spending 900 for a t-shirt they would spend 900 for a t-shirt They might look at a t-shirt that costs 600 be like this is totally inferior. It's 900 Exactly, right, you know, so that's that's where I started in the fashion industry. And we were working with, I mean, what I was doing is I was taking those pieces and we were getting them on every D-list celebrity that you could think of to get the word out there. I'll fast forward. I got into leather jackets after that. With the leather jackets, I was working with everybody from Kanye West to Katy Perry to Justin Bieber, you name it.

And we were doing six-hour jackets within six hours from scratch right downtown Los Angeles. Wow. That's impressive. That's amazing. Well, here's the thing is that I saw— To design a custom product from scratch? From scratch. Six hours.

Well, and here's how it worked, though. That's crazy. But I saw Nike ID, and I said, I want to do Nike ID, but with really high-end, one-of-a-kind, one-off pieces, and I only want to work with celebrities. That was my goal because I had worked with D-List. So I said, screw the D-List. I'm going to go all the way for broke, and we're going to try to get some of these big guns. And so basically clients would come in. They would pick leathers. They would pick the zipper.

They pick all the finishes. And then we would design and fit them right then and there. And six hours later they'd be designed. So I got into that niche. I made a lot of money. I was extremely successful when it comes to financial, but I hated my life. I absolutely hated my life. 2012, I was on the 31st floor. Sorry. 2012, I was on the 31st floor and I had my legs off the balcony

because life wasn't worth it. I had a hundred painkillers in my system. They didn't work. I woke up the next day and my life was spared. My best friend saved my life. The sad part is, is an a week later after that i was still 356 pounds back to addiction a week later i had everything but i hated my life because i felt like the only thing that i couldn't control or do was lose the weight or break the addiction i felt like I'm so successful with anything I put my mind to, I can do. Why can't I break this? That's one of those things you kind of wake up the next day and you, even if you're not religious, find yourself praying to God and you'll say, you know what? I'm never going to do that again. I'm never going to act like that again. And you say it for two

days and three days. And, and then you're like, why am I back to doing the same shit that I told myself that I can't do because it might kill me. And there you are right back, right back at it again. Yeah. And so, and sorry to cut you off there. I just want to continue. But basically, so a week later I was back to the bottle, back to addiction and nothing changed. And I continued to roll into the money. I continued to be in that lifestyle that is for me was destructive, extremely destructive, but I was addicted to it. I couldn't step away from it. 2013, December, I had a business partner partner me in the business. I went to bed with over well over a million dollars in my bank account. January 7th, a week later, I had zero. Absolutely zero. How business partner French national embezzled and fled with over $7 million. At that moment, I was struggling with addiction. I had investors at the time. And I literally, in that moment, so 2014, I said,

if I don't get sober now, January 7th, 2014, if I don't get sober now and face the music that's about to come my way, I will never change. And it will end in one way. And that is me taking my life or me killing myself or killing someone else. That's where I was. That was 2014. I turned myself in for financial crime investigation in 2014. Most people don't know the depth of these stories because my only platform is IG at this moment. And I have a lot to say and a lot to share.

And I don't want to talk for hours because it's probably, you know. We might. I'm sorry. Don't cut my off. Yeah, we might. We might. Well, I'm trying to give you the run up. But I turned myself in for financial crime investigation at that time.

And I was looking at 20 years. Because he picked up the phone and called every one of the investors, including my parents, who had everything involved in this company, and said, Noah has been embezzling money. He is back to addiction and I have to leave this situation. I cannot do this anymore. And he left. He fled. He was gone for a week. That whole week, I didn't talk to a single investor or return a single phone call because I was trying to figure out where he went to protect because I didn't want everybody to pull out at the same time. But I had no idea that that had happened, that he had called everybody and fled. I ended up finding out. You talk about everything being taken. You know,

I had a million dollar mansion in Woodland Hills over there. I had every car you can think of. We were living a life of Wolf of Wall Street, for sure. But our investors were making money on their investments every single month. So I said, hey, we're good. For two years, he had been embezzling the money. It was oversight. It's a lot of oversight. I was dealing with addiction. Anyways, long story short, 2014, you know, turn myself in because I said, I have nothing to hide and I'm not going to run from my problems in my life like I have for many, many years. So during that time, I started back in the gym. I started, you know, basically for 50, for the first 50 days, I lost 50 pounds in 50 days just counting calories and doing a lot of cardio because I didn't really know what I was doing.

So I lost that 50 pounds in 50 days. I was continuing my sobriety. The next 50 days, I lost another 50 pounds. I basically lost 160 pounds in nine months I got stuck at 208 I didn't know what I was doing I couldn't figure it out So I had a friend who said hey you want you need to start reverse dieting

You need to start adding back in carbs and adding things in if you want to ever sustain this life because you have lost a lot but You got to you got to you got to do that and you've got to start cutting down that cardio because it's too much and start working out like weight training because i wasn't doing any of that and so through that time you know it took me about two months and i ended up finishing the journey of the lot the weight loss by that time i was continuing my sobriety, you know, doing that and, you know, continuing to prove my innocence. January of, sorry, December of 2014, I was cleared for a financial crime investigation

from the LAPD and the FBI. And that's when I said, okay, I'm going to get back in the fashion industry because I need to make money. And I was left with a hell of a lot of debt from what had happened. And I wanted to do anything and everything that I could to pay anyone back that I possibly could, even if it was pennies on the dollar, whatever it took, I was going to do that. The sad part is, is that in 2015, when I got back in the industry, I started to see the drugs around again. I started to see the alcohol and the lifestyle and my addiction for that financial money. And I said, this isn't the place for me. And that was a hard thing because my whole identity was wrapped up in the celebrities I was working with. That was it. And I'd lost all the weight. That was the first time I ever was able

to wear my own jackets. And in fashion, I'd been in fashion for almost six years, but I walked away. 2015, at the end of 2015, we were midway in project with Nick Cannon. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. Yeah. Nick Cannon, we were working on his show with, with the whole Wildin' Out series. We were doing two years worth of work for it. I cut the project halfway through and I said, this isn't for me. That brings me to 2016. Do you want to interject? I feel like I'm just talking too much, man. Yeah, no, it's fine.

You're the show. Okay. Continue. We'll try. 2016. 2016, man. You're the show. Okay. Continue. We'll try. 2016. 2016, man. It goes deep.

2016, I was sitting in the parking lot at Vitamin Shop. I had just cut all of my ties with every stylist and celebrity that I could possibly do for the fashion industry because of what I did with that project. I was sitting in the parking lot of the vitamin shop with my mom. She had come back from India to visit. They lived in India for 30 years while we were here. And we were sitting there and she said, I had been working with my mom for almost a year, a year and three months, and she had lost 117 pounds. She was in the best shape of her life at 60.

I was working with her on her nutrition because I really learned and understood how to do this, not just for myself, but for other people. But I was doing it with her. We were sitting in the parking lot and she said, why don't you go and get certified? You understand the science, you understand all this, but why don't you go and get certified and start a business to transform other people's lives? You've been there, you've done it. I could be your first client. So I did. I had two options. I had $16 in my bank account. I remember this. I couldn't afford the protein powder, but I needed it to stay in shape and keep the lifestyle that I was in. And so I did. I started that six months

later. You know, I started nutrition management. It takes many, many months. And this is what people sometimes fail to realize. It takes many, many months to crank out transformations, successful ones. For me, I didn't care about what we did in six months with the client. I cared about what they were doing six months later after we worked together. And that's what I wanted as far as the plans and what I put together for each individual. Sustainability, which I think is lacking, especially today in this industry, when it comes to cookie cutter plans and mass marketed, sorry to say it, mass marketed bullshit. When it comes to any form of health, it seems like people just want to kind

of lead you along and maybe not give you the whole story. You know, it is. And so anyway, so I did, I started that. It took me the first six months to really start building transformations. I was going gym to gym because I didn't know how to do this. I had 3,000 followers on Instagram. I didn't know what I was doing, especially with social media. I had put out my story, Transformational Truth. It is on YouTube, but I put it out. Nobody picked up the story. The only person that responded to me when I reached out to them with the story was Lane Norton. I know you're familiar with Lane. Yeah, absolutely. He was the first person that responded to me and he said, see, I felt that if people would give it light, then I could

create some impact and people could actually, you know, you got to find light and I needed help. I needed a hand up if you want to call it that. And. And I work for it, but we all need that help. And I reached out to him and thought, you know what, if he could put this out there, it would be great. You know, my story. And he wrote back with something that actually changed the course of how I looked at being covered and helped. And he wrote back and said, I don't have a platform to share this, but you are going to find your platform, stay consistent and continue to put out the content that you're putting out. At first, of course, I heard that and I was like, man, no one wants to, I heard that and I was like, man, no one wants to, no one wants to give me help.

And so, um, anyways, 2000, um, you know, I, I launched everything on social media. I continue to push forward. That's the transformational truth that you're seeing on the screen. But, um, I, um, ended up, uh, you know, in that December of 2016, uh, the, the daily mail and the New York times covered the story out of the blue. I had 5,000 followers. Within four months, it went to 100,000 followers. And again, for me, it's not about followers on Instagram. It is about being able to create more impact with those individuals that are struggling, whether it is with that addiction, whether it is with rebuilding their life, whether it is with that addiction, whether it is with rebuilding their life, whether it is with the weight, right? Um, what I do and what I, what I am is much deeper than 190 pounds of weight loss.

And so, so yeah, so that's what I shot. That was a transformational truth that never got covered. Never. You film this yourself? Uh, yeah, I did. I had it. I had a, um, my videographer with me for the fashion industry worked with me on it and put together my story. It's a seven minute, but it looks awesome. I've actually watched it a few times. Just gives a little. What was, and there's so much to all this. What was more defeating and more painful?

feeding and more painful. Having somebody basically, you know, pull the carpet out from you and underneath you and walk off with $7 million and to be, you know, end up with this huge financial burden and to try to figure out how the hell to get out of that. Or was it more daunting to have gained, you know, you lost like 200 pounds and you gained it all back. What was worse? What was more painful? I would say that, uh, I mean, painful would have to be, you know, being completely burned when you have somebody that you give all, you've given all the trust and everything and that happens in a lot of a lot of cases you know with relationships and things like that i know for a fact that him doing that though changed the course of my life and i know for a fact if that didn't happen i would have still been living that lifestyle might be dead doing i i don't believe i would have made it

you know my mom there was a point where my mom just started praying and just said, Lord, take him early before he kills somebody and kills himself. And there was many, many times I would show up. I, you know, I lived right downtown Los Angeles. My parents lived in Simi Valley, 45 minutes to an hour away. Multiple times I would show up to my parents' house, wake up on the front doorstep. My whole car would have been sideswiped. And I don't know how I got there. I still don't know how I got there. Things like that.

My mom would get out of the car and she'd go to the trunk or open up the back door just to pick up her bag and she would have seen an empty bottle of Patron that I had drank 30 minutes before I even got there. And my family, we are so tight and so close, you know, and they never gave up on me. And that's what I want to say, man, about support systems and all that. They never gave up on me. And I think it is vital wherever you are in your life with whatever you are doing, find your support system that are going to hold you up,

but hold you accountable at the same time. Rid the yes men, rid the people that are going to hold you up, but hold you accountable at the same time. Rid the yes men, rid the people that are in your life that are toxic, but start to build those friendships and relationships with those that are going to enhance who you are. You know, it sounds like you ended up encountering a lot of depression, but did you naturally have some depression or negativity to you growing up? Uh, or was it something that developed, uh, from just gaining a tremendous amount of weight and losing your, uh, your, your pro soccer player for a while and kind of losing some of that goal? Yeah. I mean, I think depression, there was always maybe seasonal

depression. Um, but I, I, I still, to this day, like I don't deal with depression today. My dad passed in September and we had eight weeks. He was in the best shape of his life. Never, ever a medical anything. He was 63 years old. And we got the notice that he had eight weeks to live. Now, you go through that and things can take a turn and what i realized is that the minute that whether it was small forms of depression whether it was small forms of emotional eating that were

starting to come back from past habit i had to take the tools in my arsenal with support system, the gym, and with that accountability, I would say that disdain that I have created over the years for the life that I once lived that propelled me out of falling back and spiraling into that. So when you ask about depression, when you talk about depression, I think that depression is a huge thing.

I think that more people today are struggling with depression than they ever have. But I'll be honest with you. I think that majority of that can be cured with lifestyle. I think majority of that can be, and I hate the word cured because, but majority of that can be combated with the people that you have in your life and, and being able to have those sounding boards of people that are in your life that can understand, you know, what you're going through. And I think a lot of people that are dealing with depression, it's hard for them to step out of the dark, you know? 70% of individuals I work with are either clinically depressed or have depression, self-diagnosed because of their weight, because of what they're struggling with, because they can't seem to break the habits that are constantly holding them back from the things that they want to do with their life. Does depression dissipate as they lose weight? I've seen people's lives completely

transform. I've seen marriages change. I'm watching individuals add so many more years to their life, whether they are 30 years old or they're 70. It's amazing to watch that. But I do, I believe that the depression, I think that what you put into your body, and this may be a far-fetched statement, but what you put into your body can affect your state of mind greatly. You know it, Mark, going overeat tonight, tomorrow you're going to wake up and you're going to be lethargic and you're going to feel hungover. I can guarantee it. And you might, maybe you haven't been struggling with the yo-yo per se, but you might feel like, man, why did I do that?

Maybe. Absolutely. I've done that a million times. I've gained weight and lost weight a lot of times. Not quite as severe as yourself, but I've been 330 pounds. I saw the post that you made where you had both of us, uh, kind of stacked on top of each other. I'm about to make another one. I loved it. I thought it was, uh, I thought it was great. How, how were you able to like execute, um, you know, um, building this fashion company while you were a train wreck.

Were you, I guess, maybe going into it, were you pretty clear in the beginning or were you pretty jacked up even starting everything off? I think I say this. I say that the drugs and the alcohol were my safe place in the fact of being able to pull the trigger on things and step across that social anxiety that was heavily there. I would have never. So it was like a performance enhancing drug in a way.

Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I think that there was no way that I would have executed at least the beginning stages of things like I was able to without the drugs and alcohol. When you say drugs, like what kind of drugs? The cocaine and then heavy opiates, you know, as far as oxycodone. And I mean, you name it. I mean, but the alcohol was there and then it was like a revolving door, right? The food, the alcohol, the drugs, one without the other. I needed something to escape the pressures that I felt because I had so much pressure going on.

And maybe it was in my own head, you know, of to and I always wanted more. You know, I think that we all get in this stage where we want more and more and more. I want to be healthier. I want to be fitter. I want to be leaner. I want to be stronger. Where we forget to even experience or live in where we are right in that moment. You know, um, I see it all the time, you know, client lose five pounds and they say, I wanted to lose seven. And I said, when's the last time you lost five, you know, and, and not just with weight loss. I mean, if you're addicted to the, to the cashflow and the money, you're never going to have enough.

You're always going to be keeping up, you know? And so I'm sorry I got off track with what your question was. Just basically how are you able to execute at a high level with your business while gaining weight and being addicted? Yeah, and I was. I mean, I was always the man behind the scenes. Never once would you see me on the red carpets. Never once would you see me in the photo shoots. Never once would you, I could have been in every one of the music videos that I dressed

these people for easily, but I didn't want to be seen. You know, and that was the hard part about even putting my transformation now or, you know, putting it together is that I didn't have that much footage and pictures. You see it that I put together. Some people cover their story all the way through. I didn't. That's why it looks like Minecraft a little bit, right? We've got some pixelation going on there.

Hey, it is what it is. It does its purpose. Grab whatever photos you can, right? Yeah, but for me, it was really about, with the business, I mean, just, I would say the only way I was able to function in that environment was being high, you know, um, was being just reckless. And the sad part is that wasn't what lost me everything, you know, that's what made me more successful and more

successful, you know, and, and I'm not going to put it out there, but the amount of celebrities that I did drugs with are unreal. Everything from professional athletes to you name it, that you'd be like, how are they even getting through their drug testing in the seasons? You know, things like that, you know, but that lifestyle was real, that fueled more success, more money, more, but I want, I want, I want, right. But man, it was an early grave for me. If I continue the way that I was, no doubt about it. No doubt about it. What was it like to be attached to that stuff?

Was it like alcohol in the evening and cocaine in the morning to kind of wake you up sort of deal? Like you got the uppers in the morning and the downers later on in the day or? We had the bad part about downtown overlooking the Staples Center is that they do liquor delivery.

Oh, wow. And that was a real problem for me because i mean i literally i it would be almost every other day that i would be let's say we start in the morning and i would spend i don't know two hundred dollars i get the liquor delivery by the afternoon i'd beating. By the mid-afternoon, I would have taken care of whatever I needed to do. And if it was a client, you know, drop off or things like that, I had assistants doing all that. So I was rarely even, you know, but if it was a fitting or something like that, I would snort the cocaine, go into the place, go into the project, nail it, get back home, order the liquor delivery again. It would be 2 a.m. and I would be out of all the liquor that I could have drank.

And I had such a high tolerance, I guess, that every once in a while at 2 a.m. I would order again. I mean, and that was a constant cycle. I didn't drink with people. That's the thing. If I did the drugs and things like that in social settings, it was here and there, but I still held my composure. It was when I was in the dark by myself that I allowed, I mean, I didn't want people to see me like that, man. You know, the amount of times that I woke up on, you know, face first with my dog licking my ear where I would have just wrecked the whole house and don't even remember how I did it. You know, I mean, it's, it's just, and I'm not trying to glorify. That's what I try to, I want to make very clear here. I'm, this is not glorifying that lifestyle. That lifestyle is something you know, you don't want

to be in. And I know your brother talks a lot about addiction. I was just talking to him a little while ago about it, about how incredibly important it is to be vulnerable so that other people can know that they're not alone. You start working out, you start this difficult journey of working out, eating right. How were you able to keep yourself away from that loop again of drinking and Coke to even get yourself to the gym? Because there must have been days where things were just difficult for you. How'd you quit that? I would say three days after I decided to stop the drinking, stop the drugs, stop everything, I never had an urge again, not even to this day. Not a single urge. Why do you think that is? I think that the disdain for seeing, I was facing 20 years in prison for what had gone down. And if I was going through the addiction at that time

and spiraling back, no, no, no. Like I would be, I would not have proven myself innocent the way that I did. So that was one thing, seeing how tormented and destroyed my family and people that cared for me deeply were during that time. I mean, my parents' house went on foreclosure because they invested everything with me. on foreclosure because they invested everything with me. I think that feels. So for me, I had to bottle all those things up into an incredible disdain for never wanting to go back to that life again. And I can't fake what I'm saying right now. You probably see it in my eyes. I wish the camera could see it. I wish the camera could see it. But again, I knew that it was fight or flight. And that was it. And as I continue to do it, I built a real pleasure to how good it feels making optimal decisions for your life

versus how poorly it feels when you're not, you know? Did you develop hatred for yourself before that time before the time of uh before you made that decision to really not ever do any of that stuff again i tried i mean i i would try to to i knew the damage it was creating i knew the damage it was creating. I knew the destruction it was creating. I knew it. But again, none of that, not even suicide, was strong enough to say, you've got to slow down, buddy. You've got to start changing and drastically changing. And I say this all the time is that people that go in and out of rehab, for example,

the reason why they're in and out and back and forth in rehab is because they don't change their surroundings when they're out. They go right back to the same thing. I didn't go to rehab. I was literally under lockdown, financial crime investigation, and that was my rehab. At the same time I did, I started to really implement discipline and I believe that that's what it took, man. Discipline, not just to lose weight. It's easier said than done. Well, you should just build discipline. No, man. It takes failing forward to build discipline and break habits that are destructive. You're going to fall down, but you take two steps forward, you fall down one,

you're still a step ahead if you get right back up. Most people don't. That's the problem. Most people will take two, three steps forward. And I say this working with 100 individuals monthly on their lifestyle change. They take 10 steps forward and they fall down two. And they're so demoralized

and so ashamed that that guilt and that shame pulls them right back down to third day, fourth day, fifth day. By the time you know it, they're 10, 12, 14 days out of the loop. I'm chasing clients left and right when they start to disappear because I know that guilt and shame. And I want to show them that you can break those chains if you become transparent especially with those that are in your life that support you you know and sorry i'm keep going on rants it's okay um but that's what you're here for you're here to rant to us yeah um when somebody gets uh when somebody gets like stuck with their diet, you kind of mentioned, uh, they're like, oh man, you know, I only lost 20 pounds and I've been,

and I'm stuck. What is kind of your take and your opinion after, you know, losing weight more than once and after, you know, sustaining it now and keeping it off, do you think that it kind of has to happen in stages and we almost like, um, almost like need that resistance to, so we can continue to learn more about ourselves and continue to tweak things. And you're going to have to, you can't maybe be on the same diet all the time forever, right? I think at every, at every season, depending on what's going on in your life, you got to change things. Maybe it's the style of your diet. Like you cannot run, in my opinion, you cannot run the same, same diet, the same, the same layout, the same foods, the same everything the whole way through and expect to get to where you want to go.

However, I think that people sometimes will hit plateaus, quote unquote plateaus, and they start to spiral instead of push through consistently. Because it's easy to do. You have 10 weeks that you've lost five pounds at a time and you're killing it. And then all of a sudden you hit zero and you're doing the same thing though. Why doesn't that work? Like, why is it not working, right? And then you start doing more cardio and then you start lowering the calories. What happens?

That turns into a binge real quick with that under eating, overeating cycle that follows, right? And so I think that, you know, when it comes to, you know, diets and what you're doing with your nutrition, what you're doing with your training, I realized training at 10 a.m. in the morning was amazing for me during one season. But then as my business started to grow and get busier and busier, I said 10 a.m. is not the time for me because that's where my clients are on the go needing the guidance and I can't even focus on my training. So I just flipped that around and train at night, you know,

and but maybe next season is different. You know, I think the biggest thing is being intuitive and understanding what is working and what is not, but not allowing just complacency to come in because man, it's really easy to sit there and say, okay, I'm good. I tell people that maintaining 190 pounds of weight loss for three years, mind you, is harder than what it took to lose it. Much harder in my opinion. It does become a lifestyle. Yes, it does become like a reflex, the choices that I make. And I understand what works for me so well, whether I'm eating in the middle of the ocean or I'm eating in the hospital bed. I know for what works for me. But I think that most individuals, they want that shortcut. They want that quick fix.

And those quick fixes, I mean, it's the same thing with weight loss. It's the same thing with business. You take a quick shortcut jump. When you fall down, you have no idea how to get back up there. You never will. How should somebody listening to this right now start a diet? Should they, do you think they should post it on social media and say, look, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to start this journey and I'm starting it right now. Or should they kind of keep it private? What are

your thoughts on some of that? I think that if you have, if your only support system is so your social media posted on social media for accountability, but you got to find deeper, deeper, fruitful relationships of accountability in your life. For one, if you can find somebody that's gone through it, that makes a huge difference. I didn't have anyone in my corner. I had people in my corner, but I had nobody in my corner who had been through what I had. When it came to my sobriety, I had a best friend that had been sober for seven years. to my sobriety, I had a best friend that had been sober for seven years. He could explain and we could have conversation and identify with one another of what was going on during my journey.

I didn't have that with the weight loss. So if you can find someone like that, do that. I believe accountability is huge. That's the first thing. I think that build, get your support system and it doesn't have to be a lot of people. Get your support system. I think the other thing to do is this, set up a diet applicably, or I'm going to talk about nutrition for a minute, applicably set up a diet Monday through Friday that even if it's three meals, four meals, six meals, whatever it is a day, set it up and stick to it and pay attention to three things. This is Monday through Friday. Pay attention to three things. This is Monday through Friday. Pay attention to three things, your hunger levels, your energy levels, and your digestion.

Those three things along with once a week weigh-ins or however you want to do it, pay attention to that. If you realize that you're hungry at 10 p.m. at night, every night, change your meal timings around or change the composition of that meal to help you with your hunger levels because you don't want that to turn to a binge. If you're realizing that something's not working with your energy levels at 2 p.m., you're really tired. Go back to the drawing board of your structure and say, okay, so I'm eating heavier carbs at lunch or heavier calories at lunch. And man, I'm really lethargic. Change it around.

You get it. But you need a structure to understand what is working and what is not. Most people want to eat something different every single day. I say I can intuitively eat something different every single day because I know what works for me. However, I know that my energy and my hunger and digestion will not be the same no matter what. You can have a chicken breast at home. You can have a chicken breast at a restaurant. It's going to be two different things. It doesn't matter where you have it. It's going to be different. So I think those things, focusing on that, but having a weekly plan and then a weekend plan. Have a very different weekend plan than what you do during the week. Don't let that be cheat days.

Don't let that be overeating, but tackle your cravings that you feel that you're missing Monday through Friday. Figure that out. And every Thursday, you can decide. And that's what I do with clients. I work with their weekly plan and I work with their weekend plan. And every Thursday, I'm touching base and saying, what are you missing?

They may have something that they're missing. Let's tackle that on the weekend, but let's do it to build a better relationship around food and not live for the weekend or for the cheat day. Make a conscious decision to say, you know what, on Saturday I'm going to have that. I'm going to go to that Mexican restaurant. I'm going to enjoy it. And maybe you surround some strategies around that. Maybe you work out in the morning. Maybe you fast a little bit going into it, right? There's a lot of almost like damage control that you can apply to it. But if we starve off all these cravings that we have all the time, especially for someone who's really heavy, it's probably going to be a downward spiral for a few days, maybe even, right? Yeah. And forget all that. I think that even during the week, if you know, it's going to sound, you've probably heard it before, but if you know that having that snicker bar once a day is going to be the reason you adhere

to the rest of your nutrition, do it. Not that I'm a fan of snickers. Don't get me wrong. I don't, I would never put that towards anybody because I think that things like that will just spike your craving and you're hungry an hour later. It's not helping your hunger levels. Right. So I'm constantly paying for your energy either. Right. Absolutely. But I, you know, so I think that, and I think that, so the weekly plan, the weekend plan. And then the third thing is this. Do not stay away from eating out. If you go out, go with friends, go with things. Don't be the one to overeat in the dark. I think too many people are overeating in the dark by themselves. But if they learned to enjoy those things with other people, they would not have such a poor relationship. I think he has a camera at my house. And I've been watching this stuff. And maybe if this touches you, then great.

But no, I think that, you know, so that's another thing is that, you know, a lot of people, they stay in quote unquote diet mode. Dude, I used to take Tupperware to Thanksgiving, man. Like that, for me. I want to break that For individuals that I work with because I know that's not the way Because I would do that at thanksgiving, but I promise you two days later I would be binging on the turkey and the stuffing that was left over in the fridge, right?

So it's creating a better relationship of how you do go out and say hey I'm not gonna have social anxiety around this food But i'm gonna go out and say, hey, I'm not going to have social anxiety around this food, but I'm going to go out and I'm going to enjoy. But it doesn't mean you have to go out and overeat either. You know what I mean? And it's learning those things. And that's why. So the weekly plan, the weekend plan, figuring out about your hunger levels, your energy, your digestion. You know, I think that's super, super important, man. What are a few maybe weapons you got up your sleeve in order for people to stay on track during the week?

Meal prepping or, you know, what are some of your opinions? Try to find stuff that's portable that you can carry around that's healthy. I mean, for one, I talked about support system. I think that's huge. Lean on your support system

if you're struggling. Tell the people at work and stuff that you're going to be doing some of this. make it, yeah, make, make it vocal, whatever, whoever it is in your life, make it vocal. So that's one. Um, I think the, but remember that they're not putting any pressure on you to lose the weight. And a lot of times we put the pressure on ourselves and we end up crashing, you know, we're our own worst critic and everything. Um, but I think that the figuring out three or four ingredient recipes that are really quick,

that are really easy, that do not take a lot of time or effort. I work with ER nurses and doctors and professionals that travel the world. They do not have time. And sometimes they don't even have a kitchen. You've got to figure out quick ingredient recipes that are going to work for you. I put together a lot. I'm not trying to plug my site because I don't have ingredients on there, but you can hire me if you want. No, but I think that I think that finding that I think that also, yeah, figuring out what can suit your structure the very best.

And your timings, man. If you stay up till 3 a.m., don't have your last meal at 8 p.m. It's not working. My first meal is at 2 p.m. because I work till 3.30 a.m. every night. If I eat at 7 when I get up, dude, I'm eating all day long. You know what I mean? And so I think it's finding that. Figure out exactly what works for you. I don't care if you're doing keto. I mean? And so I think it's finding that figure out exactly

what works for you. I don't care if you're doing keto. I don't care if you're doing carb cycling. I don't care if you are doing water fasting, whatever is sustainable, do it that you can adhere to stick to it. And then during the seasons, seasons are going to change, switch it. Cause the same thing's not going to work the whole way through. What's working for you right now? I do carb cycling. So that's something that's been big for me. Basically, I start at 2 p.m. That's typically my first meal. My last meal is 1 a.m. And what I what I try to do is I try to stick to really quick, easy things that I can do.

Three ingredient, four ingredient recipes, because I don't have time, but nor do I want to be drinking a shake every meal either, right? I think that's important. You got to have the whole foods. You got to have those things that are going to drive digestion and really play the adequate role in optimal health is what I call it. When I look at blood panels of clients and things like that, I don't care just about the weight loss. Like I want to see their change in their health, not just their weight, you know? But so I think that, uh, when I, the way that I structure my meals, I typically will start off higher carb for my like breakfast, uh, let's say first meal. I take the second meal and I do a lower carb. So like, let's say everything's

high protein all the way through. I do the second meal and that's lower carb. Then my dinner meal is typically a lower carb, but then the higher carb meal again is my last meal of the night. Right. And that's how I structure it for me. That works best for me. Then I, but I carb cycle. So basically what I'll do is every seventh day, every eighth day, depending on how I'm feeling, I listen to my body, but I will throw in an extra hundred carbs, you know, a hundred, 150 carbs. I want to make sure the next day I'm not feeling lethargic or hung over, but that I feel satisfied and full, especially when I'm training, you know, utilizing those extra carbs is key. You know, I have a lot of people that train and they're like, Hey, like, I just, I want to lose weight. And I'm like,

utilize the carbs. I'm not, I'm not against carbs, but I'm also not against keto either. Like I said, adherence is the key for, for that. You know, if it's a lifestyle, I work with only seven clients on keto, five of them for health ailments, nothing else but health ailments. The other two, it's lifestyle change for them. But most of the others, they can't, most people, the world revolves around carbs, man. And I know you're, are you doing keto? I pretty much eat pretty low carb. I mess around with a lowb style diet most of the time. Even when I was doing a quote-unquote keto-style diet, very rarely did I actually do a real true ketogenic diet

where the fat is through the roof and the protein is low. I always kept the protein high. It was just mainly, I guess you'd say, lower-carb, high-fat. I prefer those foods, so it works well for me. What I've always pointed out to people is it prevents me from, uh, it prevents me from overeating and overindulging and also kind of causing triggers. So if I was to eat, um, I don't know if you like pasta and meatballs or something, uh, that would be wonderful. It tastes really good, but probably

afterwards I'd probably be rummaging through my pantry like eating something else. Whereas if I have a big old steak and I have like a little side of rice or something, I probably won't because that in my head registers as a more healthy meal. I won't end up eating a box of cereal afterwards or cookies or something like that. The way that that spikes your blood sugars and all that, right, with carbs. But yeah, I mean, you have found what works for you, you know, and I think that each individual has to find that. I think that, and honestly, I think that that's the most, it does so much for your state of mind and even the workouts, you know, here's the thing. I'm not, I'm not one to say only nutrition, you don't have to work out and you're good. I think

that exercise, I think that training, especially strength training is important. Male, female, no matter what age. But I don't care what you're doing in the gym. If your nutrition isn't on point, you will never see the results that you can if things are in sync with both. That's just the way I feel. Unless you have incredible genetics, of course. How long has it been since you've been able to work out 86 days now with that 86 days i'm wondering because

like you've mentioned that working out has been an escape in terms of the depression that you used to have and all those just like dark feelings how have you been able to battle that? Like not being able to work out? Mm-hmm. Uh, the, so for, it's been 51 days since the surgery. So I had skin removal surgery. They removed six and a half pounds, uh, all around my lower back. Um, so I have been, um, you know, I was in the bed for, oh my, this is day 11 that I'm walking. It was 39 days, no, 40 days in the bed of that, which is, so that was hard. Is that normal or? I had, so day seven, everything was going well and I pulled, I ruptured blood vessels in my back. That sent me right back to the hospital with blood clots, the size of two softballs. So they took three liters of blood. So you're talking

the smart water bottles, the tall ones for those that are listening visual, three of those, you know? So I had some complications, you know, typically what is normal is at least 15 to 17 days that you are, you know, in the bed. So, but anyways, you asked about the workout. So 30 days before my surgery, I said, I'm going to step away from the gym and I'm going to allow just activity and seeing the world be part of my release. My work has been an incredible release for me. And I know that sounds cliche, but this is my purpose in my life. And so that has added a lot of value for me and release. But when it came to, you know, stepping to the surgery, I said, for the next 30 days, I'm not going to be in the gym because I know that I'm going to feel like I miss. I mean, it is going

to be very difficult if I'm in the gym, killing it every single day up until the night of the surgery. And then I have none of that. I know how hard that is because I had a skin removal two years before that. So I know that. And I fought with that. So anyway, so going through the surgery and all that, being in the bed, like I said to you when we came on here before, is that I feel like I'm in the worst shape of my life. Well, my healthy life in a long time. So that's hard for me emotionally. It really is. I, even being on this podcast, I had a jacket that I brought and I said, I'm going to just wear a jacket. But then I had to remember, no dude, you are not three 56 anymore. And that

you got to work at that right now. That's something I've been working on with the emotional self-esteem because that it carries on, you know, and you've got to really work at that but um you know with the with being in the hospital bed and all that i just said okay i'm going to utilize my releases with my work i'm going to really put in i want to go above and beyond day three i was in the hospital bed with tubes and everything in and i was still working with clients and that is not boasting about oh well look how hard i work no but it's about just pouring into purpose. And that's been a great release for me, you know? But, um, but so yeah, being in that, you know, that was tough, man. But, uh, I think that I learned that being without the gym, that's such a big part of me. And I feel better when I'm training.

I feel, you know, and goal oriented and things like that, man. Like I believe that my work ethic in the gym over the last years has only impacted every other part of my life, you know, uh, with business, with all that work ethic. Yeah. Let's, let's, uh, let's just face it, you know, uh, with business, with all that work ethic. Yeah. Let's, let's, uh, let's just face it. You know, I'm living here in the United States and we're all very privileged. Uh, there's some people who have really unfortunate circumstances where they've been abused and this and that. Right. But like in general, what we're faced with every day is to try to make up a form of resistance. Uh, you kind of had so much that you went off the rails with drugs and alcohol addiction. That happens to a lot of people. And that's happened to a lot of people in the history

of our world. It happens all the time. And there's always going to be kind of like pluses and minuses. And a lot of times we get a ton of pluses. We want to like almost self-sabotage ourselves. But training is a really good way to build discipline. Like we're not all on like farms, like baling hay and I don't have like our dads, you know, yelling at us to, you know, do A, B and C. And it's just, we're just in a different world nowadays. There's just not as many, you know, for even like my son, he's 15. It's like, I got to make up responsibilities for him because, you know, how else is he going to learn responsibility? You know, he's not going to, you know, he's going to kind of learn in school, but if he just doesn't care about homework, then

he'll just not have to care about homework. But if he understands the value of being part of the family and like taking out the garbage is part of, you know, his role and, and mom does a, B and C, and I do this over here and so forth. We can all click and we can all kind of learn those responsibilities. But without some form of exercise or some form of pushing yourself, I can't really picture getting that from a business meeting or getting that from a book. I guess if you're into bike riding or mountain climbing, there's other areas you can get it that are outside the gym for sure.

But the gym is a great way to build it up. Yeah, discipline, I think. I mean, you build that discipline with that consistency, right? And it does. It spreads to every part of your life. But I say that about the nutrition as well. Man, like if you can commit and deliver on whatever you are setting up for, man, you will be able to steward the other things that are in your life that much better you know i i think man i have a lot of people that when i'm training and stuff

hey like how do you i want abs like you i want to lose weight like you and i look at them and i i think that's great but what what else do you want you know like because I can promise you if I hit you in the face with the best shape of your life right now, you haven't stewarded anything up until now. You're not going to steward it when you get it. They want it quick. They want that instant gratification. We talked about I call IG instant gratification. That's what it is.

I like that. You know, that quick and painless journey with whatever it is. But man, like I believe that if you can start to steward making your bed, start to steward the small thing, steward the job that you hate. Steward that now, because when you get hit with the big opportunities, you'll be ready for that. because when you get hit with the big opportunities, you'll be ready for that. I think people are trying just to kind of throw out a compliment, but they're not really necessarily thinking of all of everything that came to be to lose 210 pounds.

I heard a story recently of a famous golfer. He was golfing some rounds and he was kind of getting frustrated. He wasn't playing very well, but he's a professional golfer, so he's still knocking the hell out of the ball. And some uh, some guy, you know, kind of, and went up to him after he hit the ball and said, man, I'd love to hit the ball. I'd love to be able to drive the ball like you. He said, no, you wouldn't, you know, you wouldn't, if it was easy, you would. And then he kind of went on a rant and said, you know, his, he'd done so many shots and stuff or done so many swings that his hands would be bloody. And, bloody and like how much of his

life this you know obsession with golf disrupted and I think you know we see someone do a 500 pound bench press or we see somebody lose 200 pounds or do these miraculous things we think oh yeah oh that's what I want or I want to do that it's like yeah maybe maybe you do but I doubt once you tip once you put your toe in the water you're going to be like oh it's kind, yeah, maybe, maybe you do. But I doubt once you tip, once you put your toe in the water, you're going to be like, oh, it's kind of cold. I don't know if I want to go in there, you know? Yeah. And I call it the difference between dreaming and pipe dreaming, man.

You want a million dollar business. I used to say that I want a million dollar business. I want to do this, this, and this, but dude, I wouldn't have any clue of what those stepping stones were in between. Man, I realized the importance of building your stepping stones really sturdy, man, throughout the process of whatever you set your mind to doing. If you can do that, you're going to fall no matter what. You are going to fall. You're going to fail, but I'm telling you, you will have some incredible steps to get back up, which most people don't.

And that comes to the shortcuts. You take that shortcut to gratification, man, I'm telling you, you will have no idea how to get back up and it won't be sustainable. And that's with anything that comes with life. And I believe that even with the businesses that I built up until this point, it's not to say that they weren't successful because they did very well. in my opinion and what I feel in my heart was purpose. I didn't have a purpose. I was one designer of 50 designers that LeBron could use. The minute that I fell off the radar, they didn't give a shit about where I was. You fast forward to what I'm doing right now and where I'm at. I'm not passionate about what I do every day. There are days that I'm tired, that I am drained emotionally because it is very emotionally taxing of what I do with each individual journey. But man, that purpose that underlines everything else really holds me consistent in what I do. I love what I do. I love to watch people's lives change. And even if that is free

advice on IgE or one of my stories that I put together, awesome. You don't have to hire me. I want to add value, you know? Um, but I love working hands on. I like what you're saying because you know, in the case of a celebrity, uh, you're kind of clamming onto them for the wrong reasons. And like you said, for you, you're one of 50 or one of a hundred people. They could, they could literally bring in anybody to, to do, you know, to do something that they, they want done. And maybe they're unaware of like the different levels, you know, that, you know, someone might be able to execute a little bit better, uh, than the other, but you're going with them because he's LeBron James, you know,

and you're going with this person because they're Justin Bieber. And that's, you know, that's kind of an unfortunate thing with those kind of things. You don't have a really grounded and strong, powerful relationship, which is, you know, you're not really just transforming bodies. You're developing these strong relationships with people first. And then they trust you and you say, OK, you know, follow me. Here's here's how I've done it. Here's some different ways that you can try to do it as well. Yeah, and getting them ready to go on their own though. That's huge.

But I also don't believe that that happens in four week plans. That takes months and months and months. Like I work with clients from four to six months, but I have clients that I've worked with for almost a year, but that start at 700 pounds. And it drives me crazy to think when I think about clients that are at 700, I'll give you just a quick example. I have a

client that's at 700. He's at 501 today. We've been working for a year. That's a lot of weight loss in a year, but he has a lot to lose. All right. To even think that he is still motivated, that he has another 300 pounds to lose. It's mind blowing, but man, do I love playing a part of those things, you know, cause I'm watching his whole life change and that's with anyone, you know, that I work with. But beyond that, you know, I, I do want to ask you something. you know, that I work with. But beyond that, you know, I do want to ask you something. You have an amazing business. What has happened? I mean, it's just been amazing. And I think I'm not a power lifter. You know, I love training. I would say I'm strong sometimes, but not like you guys. But what draws me the most to you is your entrepreneurial, what you have done? I had no idea. I knew you had a great

business. I had no idea how big of an operation it was until I'm in here. I really didn't. I had no idea. I thought, well, he may have three or four people with him. He's killing it with slingshot and all of these things. What would you say is your best advice for an entrepreneur who is just starting? What is your best advice of, what would you say? Five things. And I'm sorry, I'm putting you on the spot, but give me five pieces of advice to an entrepreneur who's out there right now, who has, who knows what they want to do, who's passionate about it, but they're just starting. I would say it's never too late to quit. Turn the other way, run. No, you're not cut out for it, man. You know, um, the whole process, you know, as you're mentioning with

the weight loss, it just takes a really long time. You know, it's going to take a long time. And every once in a while you knock it out of the park because you uh create something that people love like there's a story of like quest nutrition how they just you know blew up like 400 percent uh every year for like four years in a row or something just astronomical like that um but some of the stuff that you're sharing i think kind of falls in line you mentioned the lane norton. And so I think that dumps into this perfectly. And this would be the, this would be the main thing that I would say, and I'll just leave it at that is you got to help yourself. You know, you gotta, you gotta build it on your own. You may have people that can help. You might be have people. And, and once you do get head in the

right direction, that's when you do need a team and you do need people around, you need support system. And that's what I've been able to do now. But even to make the damn slingshot, I couldn't figure it out. I kept trying to, I talked about it for years. I had it in my head for a long time. And then because people told me it was a bad idea, I agreed at some point and thought it was a bad idea and, you know, may not have ever moved forward with it. I lost my oldest brother, Mike, you know, may not have ever moved forward with it. I lost my oldest brother, Mike, to drug addiction and things like that. And so that kind of sparked me into saying, you know, life's short. I better just, you know, say, screw all these people and do what I want to do.

And so I, you know, kind of put it out there in the universe. But I remember I went to my parents, I went to my brother, Chris, and I went to a bunch of other people. And I was like, was like man no one knows what the hell i'm talking about it's this stretchy thing that goes around you you know how hard could it be like it's just a you know i had the idea but i didn't have a full concept and uh one day i was just in the car and i was actually crying i'm like driving down the five freeway heading towards uh woodland and uh yeah i just got upset and i'm like fuck man i need to figure out a way to make this damn thing and um i started thinking about different people i knew and i'm like why why do you keep why do you keep trying to push off this responsibility onto somebody else it just hit me like a ton of bricks and i'm like you're the only one that knows

what you're talking about you're the only one that's handled the kind of weights that you have. Uh, the idea came because I hurt myself many times in the gym. So of course nobody knows what I'm talking about. Cause it's my kind of personal ideas and personal feelings towards how this thing should be made. So then I was just like, screw it, man. You got to figure out, you know, how to get it made. And I just kind of like Frankenstein, some, uh, wrist wrist wraps together and me and my dad kind of worked on something a little bit together. And then once I had that, then I was able to actually go to somebody and say, look, this is what I need. But it was a lot of people, they're not going to be able to see your vision, you know, and a lot of people can't even see their

own vision, much less see somebody else's. So you have to be able to physically say, hey, this is what I want. I want it to be similar to this and give them something that is a close representation of what the hell it is you're talking about. So that way they can start to produce it. And that's, that's what had to happen. But I would say that that's the number one thing is rely on yourself. Don't have a business partner. Do not have a business partner. Don't take on any loans. If you have a technology piece, then you're screwed and you're going to have to probably have a business partner because the amount of money could be through the roof. But do your absolute best to try to rely on yourself and push it as far forward as you possibly can by yourself.

Love it. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that just those principles of the entrepreneurship, I mean, man, they go hand in hand with life. I mean, with whatever you are doing, you know, and, um, I think as an entrepreneur, I, I laugh because man, people will see, you know, social media and they'll, they'll see, you know, I'm traveling here, I'm doing this, whatever. And they're like, man, I want that life, man. I wish I could set my own hours.

And I said, man, if you had any idea of how many hundred hour weeks it takes to even not just get to where it is, cause I think it's still in, I believe it can be much bigger than what it is right now, but the amount of effort and time it has taken to get here, although it seems like a fast route because of social media and all those things, most people aren't cut out for that, man. Nobody's going to do it for you. You're an entrepreneur. Nobody's going to do it for you. You have to hit your deadlines. You have to set your schedules. You have to commit and deliver. Nobody else is going to do it. You guys put all that weight right on your own shoulders and lift it yourself.

It's insane, you know? And most people don't. Most people just, they think that it's cool to travel and set your own schedule. It takes a lot of work. And I don't care whatever business you're in, it's going to take a lot of work. Well, and like I've had other business relationships

where we've had to go our separate ways and people like I've been here since the beginning. And I'm like, no, you have not been here since the beginning. I was going to tell you that before I got on. I thought, wait a minute. He just reached out to me. Yeah. I was like, the beginning is when I was 12. That's the beginning.

That's 30 years of lifting, you know? So everybody else, in my opinion, is coming in on the 11th hour. I mean, I'm happy to be a part of it. Noah, what does your work schedule look like right now then? Oh man. Um, crazy. So I, I typically, um, I'm working till 3 30 AM every single day. Um, I'm up. That's when I'm waking up. I should text you. And I'm up at seven every single day. So it's very short hours as far as the sleep goes. Do you have any days where you sleep a little longer? For me, every day I take an hour nap without fail. 54 minutes to be exact. I know it sounds

crazy, but I did this test. My mom had it. She said, hey, drink a shot of espresso and go to sleep. I don't know what the deal is or what, but I did it. We tested it out. I slept for an hour and 15 minutes. I woke up and I was hung over. I slept 30 minutes. I woke up and I was hung over. I found 54 minutes to be exact for me. I wake up and I'm refreshed and I'm ready and I'm sharp. It's the craziest thing. You drink, do you, do you drink the shot of espresso before you go to sleep or is this for a test? I don't do the espresso anymore, but I, my mom had it and she, anyways, so thanks to mom. But, um, no, you know, so I think that, um, so that's what I do as

far as the sleep is concerned when it comes to my work. You know, I work with 50 clients in the U S and 50 clients overseas. So my furthest client when I'm in Los Angeles is in New Zealand, 19 hours ahead. It is the farthest I can get away from my time zone, the very farthest in the world. away from my time zone, the very farthest in the world. My furthest client behind us is in Hawaii. They're three hours behind us, which is, it boggles my mind, you know? So, but anyways, being able to work with just clients all over the world, you know, so basically the way it works, and I talked about it a little bit, but is that I work with the weekly planning on their nutrition. about it a little bit, but is that I work with the weekly planning on their nutrition. And then I work with the weekend plans. The guidance on the go is when life happens, when they have plans, when they're going out, I guide any restaurant menu or any gas station or any option that they

have at their fingertips right then and there. So it does not matter where they are or what time it is most, unless you're writing me even this four hour window of sleep, you know? And so it's to show them how to win outside of a box. You know, I want to show people how to win outside. And so I work with that. Um, it's not about just a nutrition. I say this all the time, the emotional support and accountability that comes with what I do. I believe you have to either be made for what I do or you're not. Anyone can be a nutritionist. I mean, most people can do nutrition. Most people can do diets, but can you connect and communicate and identify with somebody else who is

in the depths of the struggle? And I have a lot of people that are on social media that have lost a lot of weight. They still can't do what I do. This is not boasting about what I do, but I believe it's my calling, like I've said, and I would never hire someone else with me. So I stick at a hundred clients and I will not change that. I think that that is my max capacity. And if not, I'll, I don't know how else, you know, and I'd love to serve 10,000, but there will never be one plan that fits all. Yeah. You know, how long have you been working with the four hour sleep? It's been, that sounds crazy. Without the nap, it kills me. I've been doing this for two and a half years. I like to say that it took me six months of absolute struggle and then two and a half years of a successful flow of business and structure of how I do things and how I work.

And then when do you schedule the nap? Is it the same every day? Every day at three o'clock. Yeah. Unless I'm traveling or things like that. But every day at three o'clock, that's typically what it is. Um, I found my sweet spot of when, you know, clients aren't writing and things like that. But again, I'm very passionate about what I do. Um, that's, that's one side of me. And then of course, every day, two hours, at least two hours a day, but I typically will train for about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. Um two hours a day, I set as a window to say, this is my time for me. That is crucial to my state of mind. That's crucial. And most of the time I'm not in the gym to build my body anymore. It's not about that. It's for me, it's about getting that release from

the craziness of dealing with so many different individuals and it just gets crazy, you know? So that's like my release two hours a day that I do that. Um, and obviously not having that, you know, being in the bed and stuff like that. Next week I start a day one. I'm so excited just to rebuild again and get back in the gym and that consistency. Um, and then my, my morning routine, just to give you an idea at 7am, it is crucial for 30 minutes that I start my day with a podcast. And I have a podcast that I listen to that I am, I do have faith. You know, I'm a strong believer when it comes to being a Christian. But I need to hear sermons and things like that that relate to real life right now.

things like that that relate to real life right now. I do not relate nor can I listen to faith-based things that are demeaning, judgmental, or really, really old. I need things that are very relatable to what's right now. So I listen to one. I have a podcast that's amazing that I listen to every day. Watermark has an amazing app. So I do that every day, 30 minutes. Um, that's the first 30 minutes of my day. I don't look at texts. I don't look at anything. I need to center my mind for the day and then get into the craziness of the day. So that, sorry, that was a big rant, but no, that's great. That's really good stuff. So you had talked about the drug addiction. There might be somebody listening that is overweight. They're fighting food addiction that might not be able to relate to the drug addiction side.

So can you give us your experience with the food side of the addiction? Sure. Yeah. I think food addiction and drug addiction and alcohol addiction, all of it is the same. I really believe that. I think that habitual habit of what you are doing will eventually consume you, whatever that is. And when it comes to the food, I mean, I've talked about it a little bit, but I think that a big part is support system. You got to set up your support system for one. For two, you've got

to set a structure around what you're doing so you can understand what works and what doesn't. I think the support system plays a huge role because with the food addiction, you go great for three days, day four you overeat. Most of the time individuals are saying, I'm going to keep it to myself or I'm going to stay in the dark. And one of two things happens. They either spiral or they under eat the next day. Eventually that under eating turns to overeating again. And it's a constant cycle, this under eating, overeating cycle, or going into the dark and allowing five days to spiral.

And sure enough, you've regained everything that you've put back on. And more importantly, it's not about the weight loss or weight gain. It's about how you feel with your state of mind. Um, I think that is so crucial. And so, um, I think that, uh, you know, understanding that guilt and shame cannot have any place in what you're going through. I think ego cannot have any place in what you're doing. You have got to be as transparent and let down with those that are in your

life. That's really important. Cause my next question was going to be like, cause you had said, you know, put it out there on social media. If you, you know,

once you're ready to go, um, I mean any, uh, like words of wisdom for people who are going to like battle like social media, you know, cause the,

the, unfortunately like this world that we live in, trolls are everywhere. And so they're going to come, you know, with stakes, you know, they're coming in hot. So like any, yeah, yeah. Can you give our people some armor? Man, I think that, I mean, social media is a crazy, everything about social media is crazy because we see one side that's perfection. And then you see the other side that's hate.

That's really what it is. And I think that you can't control what other people are going to say. I think if you know yourself well enough and those things really impact you when you hear things or see things, don't get on it. Don't put your story out there. Like you had better be ready to handle what's about to come with it or nothing at all. Um, I know for me, for the first long while I would delete every comment that was bad, not because I didn't, I wanted to, I was embarrassed to see that it was because of the hate that comes from my following that attacks them. I mean, it's, it's insane. So I did that for a long time. What's interesting is now, so I don't do that anymore. I said, how can I even handle that? I can't handle that now. I don't have the time to do that. But what I do believe is that with social media and all of that

is that you have to know when you're ready to do that or not, if you are. I had no idea, guys, that social media would play such a big part in my life slash with where I'm at right now that it has. Like I said, for the first year, I could barely even rack up 3,000 followers and maybe 20 likes. Like I said, this is not about likes. This is not about following. If you don't have a big one, that does not mean that you can't create impact where you are. But I love the opportunity and Mark, like for you to reach out to me, like, here's the crazy thing is that I've been, I've been following your stuff. I have been, um, every time you would come on a live video, you see that pop into the Instagram, like live,

you know, started alive. Every time I saw that, I kept thinking, did he message me like a direct DM? I don't know why the whole week before you wrote me, I was in India getting ready to travel to Europe. And I literally, every time I saw that live, I thought, did he just write? I don't know why. I was not expecting any of this. And then I remember it clearly. I was literally changing my dressing and all that for the skin removal stuff. And I saw my DM and I saw like Mark Bell has written you a DM. And I thought, no, that's not real.

So I just kept doing my thing. I'm changing my stuff. When I look back in it, it was you. And I thought, nah, this isn't, this is probably just, this isn't real. So then I clicked on it and it was you, you know, and thank you for the opportunity. And I'll tell you why. I believe that the weight loss industry and the fitness industry are two separate things. You have weight loss influencers and you have fitness influencers, or that's the way that I see it. I want to see the bridge between both because I believe most people that are in the fitness industry are trying to lose weight or better who they are as individuals, period. And not to say I'm the one who should bridge that gap.

I'm sure there's other people that have, but I appreciate the opportunity to be on this platform. I'm not trying to bash anybody right now when I say this. The first fitness influencer that wrote me a DM was Bradley Martin. And he said, I want to get you on the podcast. I see him every day in the gym, but never. And I had one short conversation. He said, Hey, you're the guy that lost a lot of weight. I had 50,000 followers. This was last year. He never followed it up. And they acted like he never wrote me to be on the podcast. Now, this is not about getting

a handout. He doesn't owe me anything. He has his own lane, but I have a lot to say. And my hope in all of this is that from this podcast, I'm able to be on other platforms about entrepreneurship, about addiction, about the weight loss. There's so much more. This is not about financial gain. I've got my business. I don't need this or anything to make it better. I mean, to keep it where it is. And that's a beautiful thing about this, but I love the opportunity. And I mean this like from here, you know, that, that I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity and I hope to be on other, you know, have other opportunities to share, you know, um, but sorry.

You know, can't believe that this happens every show. We talked about how like one show links to the other, but this exact same thing came up in our last conversation where we talked to uh former crossfit games uh champion 2007 crossfit games champion james fitzgerald who has a fitness program that he's had for several years uh very successful but he was so frustrated he's like he's like, how do we talk to the people that aren't currently listening? You know, how do we get to those people? There's, he's like, we're all just talking, you know, in the fitness industry, we're all just talking to each other. You know, we put out this post about diet and nutrition and it's people that have already

tried diets. It's people that are usually probably not in too bad a shape, especially in comparison to where some people can end up with obesity. But you're very correct in saying that there's a huge line drawn between someone who's obese and someone who is just 40, even 50, even 60 pounds overweight. Somebody who is, it just seems they are at a point where they probably feel there's just absolutely no hope for me where somebody who has an additional 40 pounds on them, they can say, oh, you know, okay, in college, I was, you know, 40 pounds lighter and I could probably lose some weight, but I'm getting a little older, no big deal. And they could probably figure it out and they could probably lose a little bit of weight and be fairly happy with where they are or even kind of

almost stay the same and doesn't matter much, know because they're not the fat person quote unquote right but when you're obese it's a whole different thing and there's so many more things to i guess weight loss is going to be similar in a lot of ways we've got to figure out a way to exercise figure out a way to gain control but there's a lot more to unpack when you talk about someone that's obese. Yeah. Yeah. But, but even if you do have 20 or 30 pounds to lose, I still think that there is a huge difference between or a split between the fitness industry and the weight loss industry. And when I'm in quote unquote shape, like I know that I'm in, but when I'm in good shape, I believe that I could walk into any fit expo and you would never know that I'm in, but when I'm in good shape, I believe that I could walk into any fit expo and you would never know that I was the man behind those pictures or the screen.

I don't know that there are many weight loss influencers that can do that. I want to bridge this gap, you know, and this is whoever is listening to this podcast right now that has other podcasts that create impact with other people. I want the opportunity. I've got three months while I'm here. And I want to take as many opportunities as I possibly can to spread impact. I think that's great. Yeah. How have you dealt with it?

The skin removal is extremely painful. No painkillers? Well, so my first surgery was two years ago. I went in for 360. They removed 13 pounds of loose skin. It's a lot of loose skin. That's insane. 13 pounds of loose skin. It's a lot of loose skin. That's insane. 13 pounds.

Four feet of loose skin. The first time around, I said, I want to be on the anesthesia that they put me on. And that's it. The doctor said, look, you need these opiates because of your swelling. If you do not have opiates or at least painkillers for the swelling, you are going to have blood clots. I said, nope, I don't want to play with any fire at all with it, with opiates for sure. And I know how good that feels with all the propofol and all this stuff. Right. So I said, I'm good. I won't take your advice. That was a bad move because I had blood

clots. That first surgery put me back in the, we had a lot of complication there this time around went in. He said the same thing. It's the same surgeon. He did a great job the first time. He said the same thing. It's the same surgeon. He did a great job the first time and it was in India. And so he said, you have to take the painkiller. You have to. So this time I said, while I'm in the hospital, I will. But when I get home, I will not. And he said, okay, deal. So as long as I was in the hospital, I was on, you know, painkillers and shots and things. Um, I know myself way too well today that I don't believe that I would spiral back. However, it's just like me being, I don't go to nightclubs. I don't go to all this stuff, not to say I can't be in those environments. Cause I can't, I don't have a problem with that, but there's no need to play with any fire that doesn't

enhance or change anything about my life, you know, with, with lifestyle. And so, so anyways, so I didn't, I did the, you know, painkillers in the hospital bed. And then after that, you know, that was it. And I haven't had any urge or anything, but man, that can be so addicting. I know it. I, any surgery I've ever been under before all that, you know, those painkillers, man, how strong they are. And yeah, you know, for anybody, even if you don't have addiction, you know, you have expertise on this because I've actually gotten questions from individuals that are very obese. First off, um, they ask a lot, what can we do or what can I do as I'm dropping this weight to try and not have as much loose skin?

And then number two, what do they need to think about when, you know, maybe they get there and they do have a lot of loose skin? What options do they need to think about? I'll answer your first question first. To avoid loose skin. You can never avoid loose skin if you have extreme amount of weight, you just can't. Do I think hydration can play a part? Do I think how you lose the weight? I know my physique in general looks very different if I crash diet compared to take six months or three months to get there. You know, if I'm getting ready for a shoot or something, you know how much different your physique looks.

So I think with the loose skin, I think with building muscle, why you're losing the weight, that is something that I didn't do, but that's why I held the loose skin and I didn't have it for a year and a half. One, to make sure that my habits had completely changed. So I wasn't going to regain again, but the other was to build muscle through the process. As you're building the muscle, that's why I didn't have loose skin on my chest. That's why I have the arms, whoever's looking. But if you can build that muscle, it'll play a huge part. But I think at the end of the day, do not allow loose skin or imperfections be the reason why you don't lose the weight and get healthy, you know, because it's very

expensive. I went to India because of that. I went for the first time and I, one of the best surgeons in India and he did a great job. So I did it again. It may be $30,000 at least to get the skin removal here. At least most people don't have that. And it's elective. It's an elective surgery, you know? So, um, most people are just so scared cause they're like, I'm going to be left with loose skin, change your life.

And then if, when it comes to the loose skin, the surgery and all that, one common mistake that I see most people do the wrong way, they go in and they still have 30 pounds to lose. They need the skin removal, but they still have 30 pounds to lose. Most of them get into the hospital bed and for 30 days, and they put on another 20 pounds during that recovery. Right? By the time they get out of the recovery,

they have 50 pounds to lose. Right? Don't do that. Lose the weight. Take your time. And then get ready for that surgery. And then once you go through that surgery, you had better damn well have your nutrition in check

and your habits changed. or else you gain it back you know how frustrating was it having that skin it was hard it was all the weight you do all these things the right way and you're like i've been cranking at it for two years and and then now you got all this loose skin right yeah and two main reasons why i got it one was that i wanted to see the work that i put in so So that was the first reason. The second reason though was, um, there's a lot of, uh, and I wouldn't say health complications, but there's a lot of ingrown hairs and I'll save the, you know, the, the visuals, but there's a lot of things that come with the folds and the skin. Like a little baby. Sure. Yeah. You know, they get milk stuck

in their chin and stuff like that it's yeah so that you know so that was that's frustrating you know um but i i you know again you can't avoid the loose skin man um you know and i say that my scars and my stretch marks and everything else and you can't get rid of stretch marks don't let anybody sell you a damn wrap or a cream that's gonna you know it's gonna make your body perfect because it's not you know um but i i say that my skin and uh you know, it's going to make your body perfect because it's not, you know. But I say that my skin and, you know, the stretch marks and all, my body will never be perfect. But I believe it's the price that I have to pay for taking it for granted for so long. And for anyone out there right now who's in the midst of taking their life slash health for granted, there is going to be a day that you are unable to do it.

And you have the freedom of choice right now. Yeah. Your debts are going to have to be paid. No matter how you slice it, they're going to have to be paid. And if you pay them now, it'll benefit you a lot more than if you try to wait and wait and wait and wait and pay them later. And how long, I mean, how long do you want to sit in that place and not be able to go and travel or do things that you want to do? Like, I think there's so much freedom with that optimal health can bring. So how did this change your, um, perception of yourself? You mentioned social anxiety. Um, you probably still have some

kind of built in, right. At a certain point. But, uh, how has it changed that? I mean, you probably find yourself smiling a lot more. You find yourself, you know, uh, maybe doing more things a little bit more outwardly than you normally would have. I mean, I think social anxiety, I say this is that the, the alcohol and all that was my liquid courage, man. I had no social anxiety. I was 356 pounds. The only time I had social anxiety was when I got sober and I started to see myself for where I really was. And I was stepping in the gym and places like, Oh my God, everybody's looking at me. Nobody's looking at you, dude. You know, we, a lot of people think, Oh my God, everyone's looking at me. Most of the time, nobody is.

You know what I mean? But I think that when it came to the weight loss and all that is that up until September, or let's say November, I had incredible social anxiety to be in social settings. It's almost like a social anxiety line. There's this anxiety line. The minute that I step across it, I'm an incredible, I'm do awesome like this. But if I step right now, if I took a step back and realize what I'm doing right now, cameras and all that, my anxiety would creep in and I would be like this, really closed. That happens with me with social settings.

And it happened all the way until December of last year. And I said, I'm going to do something extreme. And I'm going to travel the world by myself in places I've never been. And I'm going to be as social as I possibly can. And I will not return home until I have not broken social anxiety, but started to really combat social anxiety. I have. Four months later, I have. And what helped me is understanding that, one, I'm never going to see these people again. And if I, I'm never going to see him again, right? Most of these people that I was traveling with and things like that. So that really helped me, you know, with the social

anxiety. So I started that and I just said, Hey, the minute that you start to think, Oh God, everyone's looking at me or Oh God, nobody's looking at you, dude. Like be confident, you know? And, and that's something that that i've it used to be once a week that i would look myself in the mirror and i was 356 pounds it used to be that i would say about the last year i have changed the way that i see myself but there's still days and the social anxiety is one of them man and i i can't quite wrap my mind around why that is other than the fact that addiction and alcohol and all that liquid courage i don't have that anymore you know yeah you can't really uh i would imagine you got into a habit of reaching for a lot of stuff just about any time you went

into any setting right yeah yeah you i need this to go do that and i need to have a drink to go talk to these new people always i need a Always. Even something as innocent as a coffee. It's a thing, right? It's just another thing. It's another little cog in there. What are your thoughts on sobriety? Because I've never had to experience a lot of the things that you're going through or the things my brothers have gone through.

had to experience a lot of the things that you're going through or the things my brothers have gone through but um i i think you know i hear sometimes people say oh well you know he's not really sober because he you know smokes pot or whatever he's not sober because he does steroids or like but in my opinion i don't really think it's fair to kind of take that whole language away from somebody because what what caused damage their life, permanent damage to their life is no longer in their life. So I kind of think they earned it. What are some of your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think that, I mean, if I tell you right now that I am sober, that means that I am sober from the alcohol. I'm sober from the opiates. I'm sober from the cocaine. I'm sober from the marijuana for me because I'm sober from the cocaine. I'm sober from the marijuana. For me.

Because every one of those was an escape for me. Every one of them, a temporary escape that I would wake up the next day and I'd still have those problems worse than they were the night before. I think that when it comes to, yes, like you said, when it comes to those things that are that are habitual that are destroying your life you got to break those and really work against them but i i think that to say but you know because i understand what you're saying some people i see this all the time they say i was a heroin addict but they get wasted every night. Alcohol, right? But they're sober, right? And what I say is that I don't think that they're adding any value to their life with that other escape. So no,

when it comes to marijuana, when it comes to, for me, that was my other escape that turned to everything else. But that's not the same for everyone else. You know, I'm not against, I'll be honest with you. I'm not against marijuana. I am for me because I know that's my escape and I have to stay sober away from all that stuff. Um, but I think the language of saying I'm sober is thrown all over the place. You know, I have people ask me all the time. Yeah. And when I have people ask me all the time is, are you going to, uh, um, they'll say the time is, are you going to, they'll say, are you going to drink again? Like, do you think you're going to drink at your wedding or like, and I tell them where

I'm at in my life right now, I don't even have a thought of alcohol, but I can't tell you what's in five years from now. I just know what I'm doing right now. I'm going to stay where I'm at with lifestyle. Makes a lot of sense. Do you have any advice for people that are working with obese individuals? Because it's very different when you're working with an athlete versus when you're working with someone coming down. And you have an intricate understanding of what it takes to break those habits. But also the thing I find really interesting about the way you attack everything is that you straight up attack it.

Your social anxiety, you traveled the world and then you just attacked it. You know, your addiction to alcohol and drugs, you quite literally stopped cold turkey. And when I hear that, it's very difficult for a lot of people with strong addiction to stop cold Turkey. There's all usually stop relapse, stop relapse. So how do you deal with individuals? Cause you work with a lot of these people and a lot of them I'm guessing can't just stop cold Turkey. How can you, how can you help coaches figure out how to tackle that? How can you help coaches figure out how to tackle that? I think understanding each individual really intimately.

I think intimacy is something that's lacking in online coaching. They're intimate with what they're eating, but not the other side of it, right? I think when it comes to especially extreme weight loss and just weight loss and lifestyle change, I think that it takes really understanding each individual. Now, the reason why I can relate to a mom who has four kids who is struggling to keep it together is not because I'm a mom who has four kids, but it's because of the people that I have worked with that came before her that have gone through and that are stepping in her shoes. Right. So I can identify with client a over here with her habits and things like that because of the other experience that I've had. Right. Um, I think that when it comes to my own, you know, experiences again, I think getting intimate with each individual that you're working with, and that's why I can't work with so many, but even a hundred is a hell of a lot of people still. I think that intimacy is huge. I think that when it comes to, you know, breaking those addictions, you're right. It's most people can't just cut it off. But for me, it was life or death, man.

I, it just, you know, and I had failed many, many times before this, I had failed many, many times before this. You know, I lost 143 pounds in nine months to regain all of it a year later. I failed at this many, many times. I have gone weeks without drinking, weeks without the alcohol, weeks without everything. But it still wasn't deep. It wasn't deep. It

wasn't deep enough. You know, and I say, find your deep reason for why you want to be healthy. You've got to find it. It can't be about a beach body. It cannot be about abs. It can't be about picking up the girls because that is all short lived. Like that won't last. You'll get there. You'll realize people don't give a damn that you have abs and you'll regain the weight because you were losing it for the wrong reasons or breaking addictions for the wrong reasons. Don't break addiction because you want to satisfy your family. Don't break it. If that helps you, great, but don't break addiction for that. Don't work at that. Work to find something deeper that's going to be sustainable. And I think that that's what most people don't think about. You know,

the first time I lost weight, I was losing it to prove everyone wrong. Everybody that's every ex-girlfriend, everybody that said, holy shit, what happened to Noah? Look how fat he is. Like he's lost his weight, whatever it was. So I lost the weight the first time to prove all them wrong. I lost all the weight. I was looking great. And I realized it didn't get me the girl back. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so what happened a year later, I regained all of it. So this time around, it was just a deep rooted reason for why I wanted to be healthy. The weight loss is a byproduct. I tell people all the time,

the scale number, let that be a byproduct, but start to commit and deliver on things. And you're going to start feeling really, really good. And that's going to relate to a lot of other things or spread to a lot of other ways in your life. Maybe it's like, uh, you know, don't worry about proving everybody else wrong, but just prove yourself.. Yes. You know, because no one really cares. No one really. No, I mean, we all do care about each other, but like no one really cares that much. And we kind of get this mindset like, oh, I'm going to show him or I'm going to show her. I'm going to show everybody.

Everybody thinks that I'm a failure, that I can't do it. And I did like that you did say, hey, look, if that boosts you and gets you going the right direction, then so be it. But it can't be the only thing. Yeah. You need those added, I would say, materialistic reasons to be healthy. Sparks to your flame that you got going on. Yeah. Are you kidding? I'm sitting here. Kindling. Absolutely. You know, I'm sitting here after losing everything and, you know, rebuilding my life. And I know that there are many people building my life. And I know that there are many people that counted me out that said, he's never going to get sober. He's never going to change his life. He is going to end up in the grave early, but I don't sit here and say, look at me now. I don't sit here and say that,

but man, is it shocking to see people come around and say whoa like you wow you know and i mean it's just you know but i i i remind people all the time nothing is too broken to be fixed nothing if you want it bad enough and if you're willing to put in the world and you don't have to say anything everybody recognizes they look they go shit and you can see it all right you can see it right in their face you're like oh okay when they look at you like yeah like they're not looking at your new rolex bro they're looking at your belt size no what's uh what do you think has been the um what was what do you think the main thing was that led you down this path to regain the weight? Because you lost all the weight.

And then I think you told a story about how you went to a friend's funeral. And it had all this weight on you and stuff like that, right? Yeah, 2010. 2010, best friend died of a drunk driver. I stopped drinking for almost two months, short-lived. But within nine months, I lost 143 pounds. I had another friend who was in that circle. I had gone back to Dallas, and people hadn't seen me in person.

They'd seen pictures, but they hadn't seen me in person since I had gained all the 210 pounds. seen pictures, but they hadn't seen me in person since I had gained all the 210 pounds. So when I got to that funeral, the chat was not about how he died. The chat was not about any of that. The chat was about, look how successful Noah is. That was one, because I was in fashion and all that. Slash, what the hell happened? How did he, why did he throw the game of soccer? What happened? You know? So, and I heard that chatter. So that was 2010. You know, I got back and I said, I'm going to prove all these people wrong. At the same time, I, I did have a reason to stop drinking at that moment. Like I was like, how are we over here at his funeral? And the night at that night, everybody here is going to get wasted he just got killed by a drunk driver like it just it didn't make any sense i was disgusted but that

was very short-lived right so i i still deal with it dealt with the addiction for that whole nine months but i was extreme when it came to the exercise when it came to under eating you know things that you do that are crash diet. But I wanted that change worse than I wanted anything else. Not for me, not to, you know, to enhance other people around me or my family, but to show people, look what I've done. I've lost the weight, you know, dude, I, it was one month, one month that I was maintaining that weight loss. And then I regained all the weight by 2012. I was back to three 56. So you go from like 143 to 356 back down to two Oh two and then back up to three 56. And then you try to take your life suicide, 2012. And I shared that story in the beginning and that still doesn't change and then it took 2014

you know in 2014 that's where it all you know came to a head that's some super extreme reverse dieting right there man i know then this was not for a competition you know um but yeah man that's wild how much weight uh what's the total math on that? How much weight did you end up losing out of the two times, you know, if we added it up together? Oh, gosh. Well, I mean, 143 pounds, then 210 pounds, then 356 pounds. Well, the same amount, 350. Yeah, pretty much the same number. But a place I don't want to go again. You know, in the last three years, it's just been continuing with the lifestyle change. I think your book is, I lost 356 pounds and $7 million. No, the book is this.

I've already thought about this, but through thick and thin. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's been basically 10 years. I mean, it's just crazy. Through thick and thin, I like that. But I like the idea of podcast because nothing i mean i cannot articulate what i've shared with you guys it's so hard to articulate the depth of this on on social media and people take it the wrong way too you got new fans old fans yeah and you just don't know who's seen what and it's fine you know um but i these podcasts

allow and i don't ever like the question. You know, I don't want to know the questions. I don't want to know any of it because you can't fake this. You know, that's what I like. I like that it's off the cuff. Like it's just it flows, you know. And like I said, I appreciate this opportunity. How do you work on being happy for yourself?

You know, like you're you're still hypercritical of yourself. I mean, we all are. But, you know, in your shoes, like it could be a little dangerous because you were heavy and you lost the weight and so on and so forth. And you got the skin removal and everything. How do you kind of, quote, unquote, be happy in your own skin? Man, I don't know the answer to that totally. But what I will say is slowing down long enough to realize where i'm at to remember where i was but then to realize where i'm at my biggest fear

is to get complacent because i know complacency will tend to will back back spiral. I believe you are either moving forward or you're backpedaling. That consistency or that, that maintenance, if you want to call it right here, can't be for too long for me at least. Um, so I, I think that when it comes to just reminding myself, you know, when I'm like, man, but I wish I could, you know, open up the floodgates and work with 200 individuals a month, man, but where was it even a year before this? You know what I mean? So I have to slow down long enough when I'm like, I want more. I think the other thing is, um, you know, when it comes to even where you are with your journey, where you are in your body, I mean, really understanding, like, I know that I'm not in the greatest of shape right now that I would like to be, but damn, do I know what it's like to be worse than this. And I have to remind myself

that though, because every once in a while, you're right. The critic criticism will come in. I'm like, I'll watch this podcast. I guarantee it. And I'll look or our picture. I haven't looked at it. And I'll say, God, I just look like a shrimp right there. I look out of shape, which for me, I think that that is a self-worth and a self-image thing, you know, and how do you work on your self-esteem? You know, I think, you know, one thing is to have people in your corner that really lift you up on those days. Right. I think we're all a little bit more similar than we think though, because take a picture of four people and their eyeballs are going to go to four different areas when you show them the photo, you know, and they're not going to be looking at anybody else, but themselves. Uh, so we're all, we're all very similar, I think in that sense. And I think

a lot of times maybe when, uh, you've gone down a path that, uh, it makes you almost kind of ashamed of of where you ended up in some ways that it it kind of uh makes you like hyper alert about about that situation you think that that's that's everybody's focus like everyone's you know here i am the guy that lost weight and i'm like not even that great shape like that's where your mind's at and we're thinking like oh dude he looks great like especially from fuck from where you came out you came from unbelievable thank you it's great that's awesome to see um but i think you know like when i i like i got back and i i've been cleared to ride the bike i'm just going to put this out there full transparency so i said to myself so i've only been back for four or five days now i was traveling but so i was there and I said, I can go to zoo culture.

I haven't been there in four months. It'd be great to go back. Would you believe that my anxiety of being seen in this light or just riding the bike and seeing the cameras and all that going on there that I said, no, I'm okay. I'm nailing my nutrition. I'll just rest until the 21st when I can actually start lifting weights. It's kind of like being 356 pounds and saying, I'm going to lose 20 pounds and then I'll get in the gym. A lot of us do that. I mean, a lot of us do that, right? But so yeah, so that, and I'll be honest, last night I was going to text. I know you said you had a team training yesterday. I was sitting in the hotel, said you had a team training yesterday i was sitting in the hotel sitting in the room of course i was answering clients here and there but i can do that

i was sitting there and i said man maybe i'll text mark and maybe i'll go there and ride the bike no my i don't know what it was but my anxiety in that moment said it's's fine. I'll see him tomorrow. You know, start justifying yourself. When I go back on Monday, I know that this anxiety was going to kick in. So what have I done? I have one of my best friends who saved my life. Who's in amazing shape, who trains like a madman. He's going to be my accountability partner this next three months. Now people probably listen to this, like, dude, you've been, you've broken all this stuff. You've done everything and you've been maintaining your journey for three years.

Like, why the hell? Like, you really still have a lot to work on. Dude, we all have a lot to work on. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, we are all a work in progress, you know, and mine is that. And so I said, Ricardo, please step in and hold me accountable because I know if I don't, then I'll just, you know, sit back and say, oh, it's fine.

Maybe I'll train it, you know, and we all need those accountability factors in our life, whatever they are, you know? So anyways, most of the time when you tell yourself it's okay, it's not, you know, you're like, oh, I'm not gonna, it's okay if I missed jujitsu today. I lifted really hard and I went yesterday, had a good practice. It's like, what are you doing, man? You're talking yourself out of something. You know you should be doing it.

Which is most of the time, you know, you don't want to fail at something. You don't do just, sometimes you just got to, but you got to know yourself well enough. Like for me, I know myself well enough that that is going to happen next week. No, it's not because he's there dragging me out. You know what I'm saying? And so, I mean, I think that's crucial,

you know, for everybody to understand the one, there's no such thing as perfection. So if you keep looking for it, you're going to be looking the rest of your life, you know? And the other thing is we always have something to work on every one of us. And at different seasons,

you'll have this, you'll take care of that. And then you got something else. Yeah. You got to keep working, man. It's so like, in what you're talking about, it's, you can see how well you've planned things though. And in certain points, because even before your surgery, you stopped working out for

30 days because you knew I got to get ready for this. I got to get ready for not being able to work out. And now, because you know how you're going to be when you get back into the gym, you're like, I got to plan to have someone with me there so I can get my, get my mind in the right place. So other people can just take from that, like plan ahead, know who you are, understand yourself and your habits. So you can really like, you know, put your best foot forward. Yeah. And combat those habits, you know? Yeah. If you know yourself well enough that every night at 8 PM youm you are overeating or snacking change up your scheduling just change it up go to the gym at night go whatever like you have got to make rash changes

but then you've got to stick with them long enough to see if they're working or not and if it's still not working then you switch again right whatever you know it is so i yeah i do i think it's structuring yourself is massive when it comes to just do doing things, man. Do you have some things that you share in general with people to help them lose weight? Cause there's, you know, we talked about the different diets and we talked about, there's a lot of different ways to attack it and we got different exercise and all different kinds of things like that. But there are like four or five things that you tell people, like, you know, I, I try to share with people like little things, like don't shop when you're hungry and some things like that. You got some couple of tips like that but are like four or five things that you tell people like you know i i try to share with people like little things like don't shop when you're hungry and some things like that you got some couple tips like that um that are maybe somewhat universal yeah i think i mean one is

tricks that you've done even to yourself you know sure sure i think one is knowing your triggers i think that's crucial it's huge because if you know that a certain thing triggers you, like, and this can be for healthy foods, this can be for protein bars, let's just say, right? I mean, you, cause some of them taste like snicker bars. Protein bars are a trap for sure. I mean, this could be with peanut butter and oatmeal guys, like this can be for anything. Right. And so I think that- I love that you're saying that. That's great. Yeah, I think that because that's the slippery slope is that, and this was starting with me after I'd lost the weight, is starting to overeat and binge eat on good, healthy foods.

It creates an unhealthy relationship with it. So you can't, you're scared of that and you're scared of the snicker bar. What the hell else are you gonna eat? And so I think that, I I think that's one thing. So know your triggers. Cut those triggers out. If you know for a fact that driving down that side of the highway has the fast food chains and that's your trigger, drive another route.

Sorry to say it, but you've got to change that. Because if you don't, you got to change that because if you don't you're going to continue to play with fire and you're going to fall most of the time um so i think that i think knowing your triggers i think i said this before but is the hunger the energy and digestion i think that's key you know to that you talked about shopping when you're hungry i mean you know shot yeah going to shop before you eat and stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good tool that most people overlook. You know, that can happen with any of us. I think that a big thing is finding your dieting style, whether it's intermittent fasting or whatever. Find your dieting style that you can adhere to.

I saw a chart the other day that Lane put out, and he put, and it was great, of course, calories are king. I get that. Calories in, calories out, cool. But the most important thing out of that whole pie chart was adherence, which leads to your consistency. So I think that that's huge to find that but also

find what you enjoy don't hold your nose and try to get through that tuna if you're not don't if you don't like tuna yeah don't do it because it's going to be one of those liquid diets that's not going to last if you can't follow you can't learn you know you think about it like being in school you know if this if this class doesn't fit you and you can't, you can't follow along, then you don't have the ability to learn and adjust. Whereas somebody else might be learning and adjusting just fine to that class. And I think nutrition ends up being the same thing where it's, if you can't follow along with what's going on, then you're going to have, you're not going to be able to be successful for a long period of time. And that's what it's about. It's not about losing 20 pounds. It's about trying to lose the

weight and try to keep it off. I think another thing is learn what your staple meals are. Your go-to. Well, and here's the thing, like when I'm traveling, for example, and I'm in a different country, resources, all that, then preparing ahead, planning ahead, no doubt. I think preparation is key to any, you know, especially with nutrition. But I know that I don't want to eat out breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, whatever my schedule is. I don't want to eat out every meal. So what I typically will do is I'll say, look, I know a staple breakfast that I can do anywhere and I don't need to have anything but hot water. Utilize that staple breakfast.

Still keep your structure that you know works for you at home to win outside of your comfort zone. I believe that the first trip that I ever took to Dallas, I had just lost all the weight and I was fearful to go back to Dallas for a week because I didn't really know how to eat outside of the box other than my schedule, you know, what I knew. I prepared, I planned, I structured myself and I won pretty much intuitively when I was in Dallas.

But when I did that, that was the first time that I said, oh my gosh, I can do this anywhere in the world. And just like I said, go to the restaurants, go join your friends for things, be social because it'll allow you to really adapt in and learn how to win outside of just some crazy structure. Also, if you're going to travel somewhere, have a little bit of a plan for it. Maybe you exercise a little bit more going into that trip because you know that there's going to be some food and some things that you're going to enjoy that you normally have been holding off on. So maybe you kind of build towards that. But, again, you don't want to lose your mind when you get there.

And then another factor would be a good challenge. Like why not – for me, it's almost easier to make things harder when I'm preoccupied. So for example, fasting is very easy for me if I'm working a lot. But if I'm not doing anything, then fasting can be really brutal. And so like one way I challenge myself is to, when I go on a trip, I go on vacations, came back from a vacation with my wife and I was like, you know what? I want to see if I can be the exact same weight when I want to see if I can be the exact same weight when I come back. And I weighed about the exact same weight. I think I weighed a pound less actually. So I was like, all right, cool. And I've done that before where I'm like, you know

what? I'm gone for five days. I want to see if I can be a pound less when I come back. And it's, you find it to be easier because there's so much other shit going on and so all i had to do and for me you know this is what worked well for me is just to utilize some fasting i just used i just used a little bit of fasting and i still was able to eat um you know within reason yeah what i what i wanted sure yeah and i mean yeah and i think i i think a lot of another thing is just the restriction i think that if you're way too restrictive it's going to turn into that overeating under eating cycle and that doesn't help any anyone, you know, emotionally, physically, mentally, all that, you know. And then I think the last thing really is to understand that you have had these habits for a long time.

whether it's with overeating, whether it's with not being punctual, whatever, you've had these habits like a reflex. Every time you're stressed out, you overeat. Every time you win at work, you go and celebrate and get drunk. you've had these for years and i believe that it is going to take years to truly break those wholeheartedly it takes a lot of strength to give yourself the time to do that most people want to break it like that or they break it and they're doing great and then they fall down and they don't get back up and i said get, get up, get up. And I tell this to people and any clients that are listening to this right now.

If you have been struggling, one, you're not a failure. Two, you had these problems and these issues for years. And three, one day is not gonna be the reason why you're in the best shape of your life. And it will never be the reason you're in the worst shape of your life. But one day turn into three days, turn into 12 days, turn into four months. That will be the reason why you're in great shape or you're not. How do you teach people to like disinfect their house of shitty foods?

You know, how do we, how do we clean up the household? Because we got, you know, some people have a few kids and some people have, some people maybe have a spouse that doesn't want to, that doesn't a want to lose weight or B doesn't, you know, can't, you know, doesn't need to lose weight or even see, they don't even want to see you lose weight because they don't want to be part of this like kick that you're on. How do you, how do you infiltrate that? Yeah, that's a loaded question.

You sometimes say, hey, put your wife on the phone or put your husband on the phone. Well, I mean, I think that a big thing, so I do have some clients that I'm working with that they have no other support, no other support system, no one. They have family, though. They have a house full. One, their family doesn't get it. They don't get their family involved because they have failed so many times before this. And they don't even want their, you know, their significant others to even know what they're doing. And I tell them they need to know what you're doing. And if it is incredibly important to you that the

Snickers that sit in the freezer or whatever are what's triggering you every single day to overeat and that's leading to you to get worse and worse health, you have got to share that with those that are there and say, look, I don't do well with these protein bars here or whatever. I don't do well with that. So I think that's really important. I think that when it comes to ridding or changing the thing is like, I believe that if you can find alternative recipes that taste like for me, right? I know that fast food is so addicting because of all it has in it that

I'm craving it three or four days later. So even if I have a day where I'm like, I just want to eat whatever I want, I have built such a habit of not going through the drive-thru, but going to the grocery store and saying, I'm going to make X, Y, and Z because I love that meal. And I don't have it all the time. I think that's huge. I think that find those things that really don't feel like you're dieting because the minute you do, you're going to, you're going to struggle, you know? Um, but I, yeah, I think that with, you know, raiding the fridges and stuff like that, I was watching, you know, these shows back in the day and they go into people's houses and they start taking everything out, you know, Chris Powell, right. Um, I don't know if you're familiar with that. Okay. Yeah. So, um, yeah, you know, and I think that for me, I don't do that for clients, you know? Um, but I think that the more,

again, they continue to share, Hey, I really, I struggled today. Don't let it go till Thursday when I check in, don't let it go the weekend when we weigh in to say this week was awful you know so I let them I keep the door so wide open that they're able to really release that yeah you know I think we carry that uh we carry that uh a guilt and shame like kind of like a backpack or something I said man if you can find a buddy or a friend or someone who can identify with you you can just hand it over or talk to them. That will release a lot of weight from your shoulders that you feel like, you know, you have to carry on your own and be in the dark by yourself.

Do you utilize anybody else in the group to help each other? You say, hey, you should talk to so-and-so. I don't. Keep it private. I keep it very private. to so-and-so? I don't. Keep it private. I keep it very private. What I do that does help a lot is that if I have a really heavy conversation, like say a text message conversation with a client, and it's really powerful, whether yesterday I did it and it was talking about identifying the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger.

Why did you overeat? Were you physically hungry or were you emotionally hungry? Was it emotional eating? Anyway, so I had a quick conversation. So I'll put that on stories. And most of my clients that I work with, they follow it. And obviously, I won't put it out without my client knowing. But it helps a lot of people.

They'll write me and say, man, I'm struggling with that this week. So I think the more, but yeah, I try to keep things very, because there's some cases that are so deep and crucial and heart-wrenching. But man, I love working as part of them. You get a chance to actually physically get in front of some of these people? I have met four clients in the whole time,

other than the first 13 that I had gym to gym. What was that like? I felt like I was groveling at people's feet. I think that the world of social media and what you're able to do on there. And I couldn't imagine building this business, going to gym to gym. Like it would be very, it's just a whole different ball game. Um, but I, I love spending time. I get to know the client so intimately and we create such a relationship and a friendship,

whatever you want to call it, that when I meet them, it's incredible because it's like putting a face to that, right? The crazy thing is, though, is that off of WhatsApp and calls and video calls and things like that, I feel like I have spent day after day after day with a lot of these people, you know? And yeah, that was one of the clients, uh, just crazy stuff, man. Um, just a lot of, uh, yeah, but anyway, so it's, it's been a journey, man. Um, but I I'm, I'm grateful to be here, you know, just to be where I'm at and, uh, I I'm excited for what's to come. Um, I, I believe that there is a way to create a mass marketed slash, you want to call it that app, that can touch 10,000 and that can impact 10,000 different individuals.

You were talking about tech. You were talking about how you need a business partner in that. I have a business partner right now. We're working on something. I believe it's going to revolutionize what cookie cutter plans are. It will never do what I do hands on, but it's crazy. And so I'm very excited. And I believe that is exciting. I hope that works well for you. That sounds great because more people, a lot of people do need help. Got anything, Andrew? I've never been overweight.

Yeah. However, when people reach out or maybe they don't reach out, I want to help. However, like I can't, you know, I've never been in their shoes. So how can someone like me approach that with like, it's hard for me to, I mean, I'm definitely going to show compassion, you know, but like I said, I've never been overweight. So like some guidelines for somebody like me who wants to help out somebody who's overweight. Yeah. I mean, I think that if you just plug my Instagram to them. I mean, this podcast is going to a handful of people for sure.

Yeah. No, no. I'm kidding. But no, I think that, I mean, people just want to be heard, man. Like sometimes they just want to speak and share and not eat. You not talk. You just listen. So many, so few people have sounding boards that I've learned in their lives just to share and be, uh, just be able to share,

you know? And so I think a lot of times like with people that are not, you know, like, it's great that you're getting hit up by people that want to be held. I'm sure that you hear from people that are overweight and they're like, how did you do it? You know, you lost weight and stuff like that. But I think compassion goes a long way. Compassion goes a long way. Here's the sad part. Most of the free advice that you give will not be used. Unfortunately.

I cannot tell you how many free plans and free advice and I would spend hours and hours and hours on DMs helping people that went nowhere because they were given it free and they didn't work for it. And that's why I charge.

If I could do this for free, I had the money to do it, I still wouldn't give it out for free because I feel that they will not ever steward it because it was given to them. The car that I drive right now, if I didn't pay for that and it was handed to me, I promise you, three months after having it brand new, I would forget to even wash it again. Take it for granted. Yeah. Right. And so, but I think that you're a listening

ear goes a long way. I think that patching them in to podcasts and things like that is huge. If you can't speak that, you know, to that, but I think, um, it's hard. I don't know how to give you that advice because I, yes, I've been fit before, but I don't know, remember what it felt like to just be fit. Cause I've been through so much through the process, you know? So it's kind of like a reflex for me to talk to someone who's struggling. Right. Right. I think you nailed it though, by saying, you know, just listen. And I think, you know, the other thing to keep in mind is they selected you for a reason. So you can say, hey, you should check out some of these other people. Thank you for sharing that.

And then give whatever advice you want. But for some reason they shared it with you as opposed to a lot of other people they could have shared it with. Yeah, and I think engagement is huge though. I want to get it right. I think that engagement, especially on social media is really important. I think that most people that have followings and stuff, it's hard for you to go through. I never understood until now, but it's hard to go through all the DMS and all that. I get it. But man, if all you're doing on social is self-serving, you're not helping anybody, you know? And I feel that

if you, some people just want to be heard. But another thing is this, is that, I mean, the amount of messages that I get of people that want to take their life that don't, that won't, because of what, you know, the story is, it's amazing. But you know, even bigger than that is the people that reach out and say, I'm struggling. I'm whatever. And I, I just write back and say, give them one thing. And they, they're shocked. They're like, how did you, you know, but one response could be the reason why they don't take their life. Even just tell them that even just telling someone that that's very normal, your thoughts are very normal. You can say I've been through that. Yeah. Yeah. yeah and but i think that a lot of the social media they don't it's but in my my part of the industry with the weight loss influencers stuff like that dude they put up the stories they put up everything they don't even engage people they

have 50 comments like engage some people you know what i'm saying if that is your full-time yeah say something that's what you do and and for God's sake, stop selling the skinny tees and the quick shortcut stuff. And I'm sorry, I have to say this. Stop it. You didn't get in the shape that you are because of it.

You don't even use the product, probably. And just start to put out things that are sustainable, man. I think that a lot of people fall into that trap. I'm telling you, if I didn't have the things that are sustainable, man. I think that a lot of people fall into that trap. I'm telling you, if I didn't have the business that I have, maybe I would start peddling Quest protein and things like that.

I use Quest. I use Power Crunch. I use some of these products. But never once are you going to see me put a 10% off, get it now. No. I feel that a lot of people that put out the product they fall into this category of let me monetize as much as i can on my on my following and i do you do you grind how you're gonna grind um but i think that just the honesty

has is so far gone and in media, you know, especially with online coaching. So it with, uh, with, you know, trying to get things done quick in mind, has anybody ever contacted you and said, you know, they're, they're obese. Um, can you help me lose, we'll say 60 pounds because that's what the doctor said. I need to get Gary Atchick's bypass surgery. What are your thoughts on that? Really good question. I work with clients in that that have failed with bariatric surgery. So they had weight loss surgery and it's failed.

So they have a lifelong of complications because of it now. And they got it when they were young and they're struggling to keep nutrients down. They're struggling to do a lot of things because of what that does. These are people that get their stomach shrunken down. Yeah, so bariatrics and any type of weight loss surgery. You can't change habits with a pill, and you can't change habits with your stomach stapled. And most of the time, they do this extreme thing to lose the 30 pounds, 40 pounds that they have to lose. And then they get the skin, I mean, the weight loss surgery. And a year later,

they blow out their stomach again because of the habits, right? And I tell people this all the time and I have clients that come to me to lose the weight before the surgery. Good example, a guy, 54 years old, he's 560 pounds. He came to me less than eight months ago. And he said, you know, he knows he needs to get bariatric surgery and he needs to lose the weight. He needed to lose 50 pounds. So he said, how long can we lose it? We need to lose it in this time. And I said, I can't give you a timeframe. If I give you a promise of how many months it's going to take, you better run for the hills.

I'm not the coach for you because I don't want to sell those promises. Long story short, he's down 100 pounds today. After losing the weight that he has, he's realized, I don't need a shortcut to do this. And I don't bash anybody who gets weight loss surgery. I need to put this really clear. I will never bash anybody that gets weight loss surgery. However, that weight loss surgery is never going to change your habits. And habits are the only thing that are going to sustain the change that you make through it. And so I don't know if that answers your question, but. It absolutely does.

Yeah. So thank you. You guys got anything else? There was one thing I wanted to ask you because I think I could get a good point of view on this. Mark brought up to you the idea of like, how do you keep yourself happy? And obviously you've heard of the body positivity, like the movement, right? There are positives to it, you know, and it's, I guess, you know, you can't us having a point of view on that, you know, you can't necessarily judge these individuals about wanting to be positive, you know, but then

there's like the health aspect of it, you know? So I'm wondering, what is your take on that movement, positives and negatives? This is such a loaded thing. So I'm not even going to tiptoe. I'm just going to talk how I feel. So whoever's out there that takes this wrong, this isn't for you. The body positivity and all of that. Love yourself at every size. Love yourself wherever you are at that moment. A lot of respect for someone who's three, four, 500 pounds that loves themselves. Your panels can say you're healthy because your blood levels are all perfect. Mine were. At 356, mine were perfect. That's the crazy thing.

All I had was a thyroid condition. I didn't have anything else. No cholesterol, nothing. But I know I was unhealthy because every time I would sneeze, I would lose feeling in my right arm. Right? Your heart is not built to carry that much weight. And I would challenge that if you love yourself, steward your health. And that's a great way to love who you are. It's not about changing a size six waist is not going to make you happy or 30, whatever. It's not going to make you happy. Not at all. Um, but I think that the, the body positive positivity movement of the fact

that if you're 300 pounds and you're trying to lose weight, that you hate yourself. That's nonsense. I don't know if y'all have heard that narrative. That's a nonsense thing. But I also believe that glorifying being unhealthy is also not the way to go. However, I think that Instagram, social media, magazines, every one of those things are so far to the left of perfection that it adds all sorts of emotional anxiety when you're seeing that it just does so i think that

if there could be some type of a balance between showing what's real and what's not if there could be something like that it'd be beautiful but i think taking it over to the far left and saying, like for me, I get attacked by body positivity because I say, I'm never going back. And I talk about just how destructive it is to be 200 pounds overweight. And not destructive of how you look, but about how long you want to live, you know? And so I think there's a lot to be said about that, you know? And like I said, your panels can show perfection. That's fine. But I promise you that's not going to show you when a stroke is coming, you know, and this is not any, you know, digs on anyone. But I would

hope that body positivity, yes, I think that it is important to stop long enough where you are and say, you're doing great, Noah. You're doing great. And then get up and keep going. I didn't do that throughout my process. Every step of the way, I said, you're not good enough, dude. You got to keep going. You're never going back. You know, it's that other way that worked for me. but i think that if you can learn to love and experience where you are at that moment it'll be huge you know but the body positivity thing's a whole you know thing yeah um and so yeah i think that steward your health tell me about your tattoo man you got a bunch of them but tell me about this one with purpose got a bunch of them but tell me about

this one with purpose on it yeah so this is so i got his purpose is that right yeah this is romans 8 28 romans 8 28 so it's the armor of god here is what i have because i i've had too many experiences with god that it is undeniable that he exists. Is he black? You know, I can't tell you that. Oh, okay. I thought you meant he is. I haven't seen him. Maybe.

Black woman, I think. So, bro. Before we get shocked here in this room, let's just keep going. He's like, come on. And I'm like, no. Oh, man. No, so it's the armor of god here it goes all the way up um anyways and then all trying to show me his traps yeah there's no there's nothing here are you still flexing though do you want but so yeah so it's like it's like this

no um and so anyways what this is is basically the armor of god and then every muscle fiber that is taken and it's all down my body so basically i have fibers uh one seven is the day that i lost it all and i and it's changed my life forever jan 7th right and one seven is also sobriety date every seventh and things like that. And then this was in honor of my dad cause he passed, but with Taj Mahal and where I was born in India and that's it. But, uh, it's been, it's taken seven years, you know, the first time that I was working with a tattoo artist and I'll save the long story. I shared it with you.

But, uh, first time I was working with the tattoo artist, he, um, I was 356 pounds and I drank whiskey, uh, whatever it is, a big handle of whiskey, the huge ones. I drank it throughout the whole session. Now, when you're drinking, you're bleeding everywhere, right? That was just how it is. And he said, man, I don't know if I can, you know, keep doing this. I said, you just keep going. I was an angry drunk in the chair. I returned him two years later and I was 166 pounds sober. And him and I, when we finished this piece, because we finished it all this trip, him and I reminisced on these stories and I have it shot. So I hope I can edit it and put it out the right way. But of the first day that he met me, that I was an absolute train wreck,

not to say I have it all together now, I have a lot to work on, but just the change. And he didn't even recognize me. You know, when I went back to him, he's like, like, was that you? You know, I, he just couldn't. And he just couldn't and he just said character he said it's not even just about the weight loss it's about your character and your demeanor has completely changed and i took that as a compliment because yeah so so yeah um you mentioned your dad he passed away uh a few months back. Yeah. And he lives in India. Him and mom, yeah.

And you had a chance to go see him or? Yeah, well, the unfortunate part is that, so dad and mom, they were in India. So for 30 years, they would come back and forth to the States, but stationed there in India, my sister and her husband, they both had the same dream six months apart that they were supposed to sell everything they had and move to India and work with my parents. Husband had the dream. My sister's like, you're crazy. Six months later, she had a similar dream. They did that. So they have twins there. So they're all, they were

all in India. My mom and dad, they, they decided that they wanted to take one year to just work on their marriage and just their time together. So my mom and dad came back in January 2018. And then in September, we got the news, man. Eight weeks. It was a rare form of kidney cancer. One out of 100,000 have it. He's had it since he was seven years old. my god but it wasn't activated so it happened so quick you know the beautiful

thing is that one i'm so glad that this didn't happen five years ago because we were shattered our relationships were shattered you wouldn't have seen dude, none of it. And not even just that, but the closure, not even closure, but the peace that I have in my heart now instead of the regret. The second thing is that my family, we were so close and so tight that no decisions were being fought about of how to go. Right. And so I was norway working um he had a couple weeks left i was in norway i have a a team there that works on the back end of stuff and uh i was there and i got the call i told my mom i said don't call if unless it's urgent if i text me but if you call me when I see that phone ring I know that that's you know and so she did she said you know she called and said that you have a couple moments you know to to speak so I did and one thing that I'm reminded of through all of this is that he sold everything he had to go to India and work with those on less fortunate on the streets. And his dad was a pharmacist. His dad had it all for

him. But my dad said, no, I'm going to follow purpose. That's exactly what I'm doing right now. You know? And so it was painful, man, September, you know, when I went back, cause the first skin removal surgery was two years ago, and my dad was there. And so being back there in the same place, in the same room, and not having him was hard. But, man, I'm just grateful that we've all been so bonded together through all this. And I think that where my heart breaks most is that my mom lost the love of her life, you know, 32 years gone.

And the experiences that they were about to do this, this year traveled, you know, around the States and all that, you know, but I, I've been turning the, the grief into gratitude. I think that that's helped me. Instead of falling into depression and being a mess all over the place, we all grieve differently. But for me, it was like saying, look, I'm grateful that we had the time that we did. And he's created incredible impact on my life. And yeah, you know, just move forward, man.

You think maybe growing up as a kid and seeing how they helped people that were less fortunate maybe there was a side of you that wanted to do something like fancier like sexier for a while and you had to kind of go through all that and live all that to kind of get back to maybe uh what you saw as a kid and maybe you you know just didn't really recognize how much you were gonna love helping other people the way that they did yeah i think compassion has always been there for me because of what they did. You know, so I had, I've always had a piece of compassion.

Um, I think the, when I was going through, see, here's the thing is that we were in a 400 square foot home, all five of us, 400 square feet. My parents lived off of a thousand dollars a month supporters here in the

States that were supporting them. Right. So it's not like we were living it up we used we had no tv until we were 13 we watched movies on a camcorder that were recorded from the states brought for us so we would watch movies right here on the camcorder and long story short is that you know you fast forward from that and then i have everything at my fingertips and i have made it, you want to call it financially. I had totally forgotten during that time of where I came from.

Totally. Didn't even know who I was anymore. And it took me really losing it all. And then of course, when I go back, every time I go back to India, I was there a couple months ago. I'm like, whoa, how blessed we are with the things that we have seriously. Cause even here on Skid Row, I've got a friend that, you know, serves the unfortunate on Skid Row, has an amazing story. Skid Row, they have sidewalks. You don't have sidewalks in India. Skid Row, they have sidewalks. You don't have sidewalks in India. The poor don't have that.

And they have programs. Not to say that they're still less fortunate, but it's just a totally different level of poverty. But I've forgotten that, man. I had it all. I still hated it. I was like, man, I want more. I'm not pleased.

Would I ever spend $30,000 on a night in Vegas again? You could give me a million dollars right now and I'd never do that. But it's changed the way that I steward even the way that I steward my money and, you know, just rebuilding. And I know tomorrow's not promised. But at the same time, I'm excited for what's to come tomorrow. Vegas is inexpensive. I'm interested in this $30,000. I should have said Singapore then.

Singapore's on another level. Sorry, just another question hit me about the weight loss surgery because I've gotten this response, so I want to get your response, which is, well, because we already know if the habits don't change, the person's not going to change.

They're going to end up overweight or even worse. Yes. Okay. So about the habits, they promise that their habits are going to change once they get the surgery because then they're going to be motivated. Yeah. And you think that, you think that, I mean, it's just like saying the, once I lose 30 pounds, I'll go to the gym.

I never got to the gym. You know, you're in the gym to lose weight. I think that with the, with the weight loss surgery, with any of that, I think a lot of times, like you were saying in the beginning, I will be happy when I, or I will do this when I, that when I is never going to come, man. You know, and I say this about a perfect time. People are always looking for the perfect time to start something. I'm going to start on Monday or I'm going to start in January 1st. And I've been there. Don't get me wrong. I've been there. So many people are in that zone and they say that, man, that Monday's never

going to come. What I say is that if you can push through and persevere and win and make changes in the harshest of times of your life, dude, when times are good in your life, nothing is going to knock you down. But if everything happens perfect and everything is linear and everything is easy, dude, when you fall down, you're not going to know what the hell to do. You know, you're going to be so weak. I think that you build that strength, you know, as you go. But so with the weight loss surgery, I think it's the same thing. I think how many, how many times are you going to tell yourself Monday? You're going to start. I like to start clients on a Friday, but I'd like to start on Monday. No, no, no. Let's start on Friday. Are you hungry for it?

Let's do it. Cause the truth of the matter is you're hungry for change right now. You're hungry to be sober right now because you had a diff, uh, you're going to wake up and you're not going to, you're going to feel unmotivated. You're going to feel like you have no drive and you're not going to do it. I say that about being inspired, being motivated. Dude, motivation is up and down, left and right, man. If it was always high, it wouldn't be called motivation at all. But I think that if you can find that middle ground, that's discipline. That's consistency in between all that.

It takes work and it takes time and patience. And most of us don't have that in many different ways. Fuck yeah. I think it's a good place to end it. Yeah. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later.